A day in Kyoto

After breakfast one morning, Holly took time off to go meet an official.

'An official?' Kenichi asked during training.

'Yes, its about her situation in her home country.' said Miu. 'All she said is that things are looking up and quite possibly she would be back with two more people.'

'She didn't say who though.' said Akisame. 'She just looks forward to it so we gave her the day off. Hopefully it will not be spoiled by a peek-a-boo from Yami.'

'Yami! Holly-san doesn't know about Yami yet!' Miu gasped out.

'Oh yeah, she keeps saying a delinquent martial arts fraternity Yomi said that to those who wants an in better beat us first, she has no clue they're a dangerous organization!' Kenichi yelped in dismay. 'Did someone stalk her at least?!'

'Oh, Shigure does, no worries.' said Hayato. 'She'll handle everything to make sure Holly's meeting goes smoothly. She's also well enough to know the truth now, now that she feels that she has a place to come back to. She's lost her fatalism.'

'That's good to know but I wonder if ignorance is bliss since Miu-san and I know more we get more attacks than we'd like.' Kenichi mused thoughtfully.

'Its not that.' said Miu. 'The reason nobody from Yomi attacks Holly-san is because of her advanced level in Ki. Even if they're stronger than her, getting struck by Ki attacks are dangerous and can easily allow her to win with a reinforced precise strike. Right now, we and them are on an equal footing in Ki Training and how faster we develop is up to us, the disciples. We have to do better than them as regarding to Ki, we can't rely on Holly-san because she has her own battles. She is also an Expert Class in Ki while along our level in skill there's no way they'd challenge her.'

'Yeah...I wonder how are those guys training in Ki huh?' Kenichi frowned.

'No doubt they're put into sheer levels of stress as we speak.' said Hayato. 'Ki training is not to be forced. Rather, you become one with it and flow with it. You control it not it controlling you. Easier said than done though yet there are those like Holly once in a while. There are people born a genius in specific fields they didn't know about until they stumble into it.'

xxx

In Kyoto...

Nakagyo Ward near Nijo Castle...

Holly got there to see a middle-aged woman dressed like a business lady. 'Welcome to Kyoto, Madam Bones.' said Holly.

'Indeed. Nice place, polite people, and tasty food I'm not complaining.' Madam Bones chuckled as they started walking together. 'We're going to the hospital to meet Black. He was one of the Aurors under Crouch but really, that sham of a trial means one life wasted and another left to misery.' she shook her head as Holly narrowed her eyes. 'One action always causes ripples of consequences.' she said. 'You seem to be doing well...you were so small last time I saw you but now, you're a budding young woman.' said Madam Bones, impressed.

Almost three years ago, Holly Potter was said to be the shortest of her peers and wore clothes that were worn out and too big for her she looked like 'a Weasley in hand-me-downs'. Now she wears good clothes and shoes, and a budding beautiful young woman at 4'10. She was wearing a maroon jacket with black buttons, a rose-pink dress, white tights and brown boots. She also sported a light brown shoulder purse.

'Is there trouble back there?'

'Well, thankfully nothing for now, but people are hounding me for your and your godfather's locations so I had to play the Magical Oath card.'

'Magical Oath?'

'You swear an oath you swear you never break using magic as your witness by saying 'I swear on my magic' plus whatever oath you're going to make. Its a powerful oath one must not take likely because the price is losing your magic.' said Madam Bones. 'To any witch and wizard, that's a death sentence as it means becoming a muggle.'

'Muggles aren't so bad...they work hard to improve their lives that trends change every two years with new innovations on the market and they definitely have better standards of living. Not to mention they know the value of hard work and never take anything for granted like the people I'm living with now. I learned a lot from them.'

'Hooo? I'd like to meet these people sometime.'

'Come up with a convincing muggle story about your job and try not to slip into magical terminology...the guys I'm staying with are professional martial artists who work for both the Muggle Government and the law that they know how the hierarchy works. What's the equivalent of your job in the muggle world?'

'I'd say a Superintendent...but I don't know what Superintendents do.'

'Basically the head of the police department overseeing its various divisions.'

'Ah, not that different from my job, just, muggle-y.'

'Yup. Read up on some books about the MI-6's laws and rules particularly on how to spin my situation...I told them I'm a rich girl on the run from people with bad intentions about my money and protected by good officials.'

'I'd like to hear that...'

xxx

Nagaremizu Hospital...

They went here after withdrawing money from Gringotts by mostly Sickles. They went upstairs, turned left walking to the end of the hallway to enter a door that reveals another hallway leading to an elevator...Madam Bones pressed number 10 that was labelled 'Visitor's Area and Restaurant'.

The other floors were:

0- Underground Operating Room, Various Magical Rituals for Dangerous Cases
1- Information Center, Medical Admission, Cashier and all Medical Laboratory Services
2- Magical Pharmacy, Housekeeping Office, Janitorial Office, Storage(employees only!)
3- Magic-Induced Injuries: Spell Crafting Experimentation, Duel-Related Injuries, Curses, etc.
4- Creature-Induced Injuries
5- Potions Accidents, Poisoning
6- Health Restoration(Physical, Dental, Optical), Fitness Gym
7- Cosmetic Treatments
8- Mental Treatments, Psychology, Counseling
9- Hospital Private Rooms

A rather efficient hospital that covered pretty much everything.

At the tenth floor, was indeed a nice place. It looked like a Mall's Food Court and many tables of two, four, six, eight and even ten. There's also a Game Area!

'W-wow...I've never been here before, I've only ever been to the Basement, and Sixth to Eighth Floor for my issues...'

'This place is amazing...St. Mungo's is lacking compared to this.' Madam Bones gulped. And the smell of the food is...very distracting. 'What would you recommend? I just tried out something random that turned out to be delicious, its a lucky pick.' she said. 'But first, let's find Black and Lupin, they should be here somewhere...' they looked around...

xxx

'Its been a year since I started recovery here, eh Moony?' Sirius mused as they waited in a table for four.

'Yeah, you even treated me out here since, well, we both look worse for the wear.' said Remus.

They were both treated in 4th, 6th, 7th and 8th floors in different sessions with them sharing a room for two. They never felt any cleaner and healthier indeed.

'Meh, its the idiots paying for us technically, we can afford to splurge ourselves in this hospital.' Sirius chuckled.

Remus can barely make ends meet. That, along with Werewolf-Induced Illness and Transformations gave him so much stress that worsened his condition and mental state that he was often depressed.

Sirius had thin, tasteless oatmeal and half a stale bread that barely filled space in his stomach in Azkaban and since Azkaban's Life-Imprisonment Room is a surely-filthy area with lots of cobwebs, deliberately uncomfortable and cold from the ocean breeze, especially during winter made worse with Dementors ensuring nobody's in a good mental state to escape. Well, since he has no happy memories as he only thought of revenge and anger, he was able to maintain his state of mind as Dementors can only absorb happy thoughts and then force nightmares and fears to surface in proportion to what they took.

That, and he is often in his animagus form. The floating bastards are blind so they often report him 'quiet, too quiet'. He also memorized the schedules of the wardens who delivered rations so he transforms back. His mind and magic remained healthy but his body, not. Worse, he's got horrible skin conditions and lice from his neighbors, and the misfortune to listen to Bella for thirteen effing years, loudly wailing.

Sooo yes, they spent over a year here for full health and recovery. Delicious Food, Nice Healers and Nurses, strictly professional and don't give a damn about Blood Status. That, and they spent money on lavish hospital comforts too and it barely made a dent in Sirius' Vindictively-Gained fortune.

So they were living the high life and bound to be released soon, the Healers are just finalizing their release papers, they're just waiting for them to be called.

'Hey, that's them!' Remus gasped, recognizing Madam Bones...with a green-eyed teenage girl. 'Over here!' he called out.

'T-that's Holly?' Sirius gasped out. She grew up beautiful with the only thing she has from her parents is her curly-wavy hair from James and Lily's eyes. Other than that, she really does NOT resemble them in face.

xxx

'Over here!' they heard a man call out and two heads turned to the source of the voice.

Its them.

'Ah, there they are.' said Madam Bones, looking at the two young men. 'They look too young for their age...they're in their mid-thirties you know.' she commented though she can easily tell who's who. The scarred blonde was Remus Lupin, a Werewolf and Family Friend of the Potters and the brunette one being Sirius Black III, wearing his long hair in a ponytail. Both were in Hospital Pajamas and slippers

'Ahahaha, a lot of middle-aged people in denial frequent the 7th floor.' Holly chuckled. 'You can really 'deny' your age on the outside, but of course, no matter how pretty you look, you can't deny your true age by how weary your insides feel.'

'True, that.' Madam Bones nodded in agreement.

xxx

And so...

'Wow...fourteen long years...thirteen of which in an unsanctioned slammer at that...and you grew up well after you finally got justice.' Sirius sighed wistfully.

He got wind what Holly had to put up with and the fallout when she ran away, leaving her memories to Madam Bones.

What a memory indeed that launched a full-scale inquiry on her upbringing and time in Hogwarts wherein she was clearly being set-up to face the not-quite-dead Dark Lord. So Holly did the right thing in running away to avoid set-up number two and without her, the lone Parseltongue in school, rescuing Ginny Weasley never happened as only a Parselmouth can find the famed Chamber of Secrets. Had the Professors done the right thing in protecting her from unjust accusation and proving her innocent instead of leaving her to the prejudiced wolves called students, Holly would have stayed, and Ginny Weasley might have lived. That was the common consensus.

Molly Weasley AND Arthur Weasley sent magnified Howlers to Hogwarts holding them responsible for the death of their daughter if she was never found.

She never was.

Letters were sent to her, only for owls to never find Holly as the owls flew in circles as soon as they were given letters. Without her, nobody can find the Chamber and exterminate the Monster of Slytherin.

The students drove away Holly Potter, nothing's stopping Slytherin's Monster ever since, until Tiberius Ogden remembered that Greece has tons of Parseltongues who are revered for their Healing powers in homage to the god Asclepius. They hired one to help find the Chamber and kill the monster with an army of Aurors and Hitwizards.

They also found Ginny Weasley's decaying corpse inside the Basilisk and a black book of some sort that reeked of dark magic...so the Greek bloke used a Basilisk Fang to destroy it, and to their surprise...and shock, they saw a mangled ghost of the Dark Lord come out screaming from the book.

The Greek guy also berated them for thinking all Parseltongues are evil when his country reveres them as Disciples of Asclepius thus higher in rank in their hospital than even the Chief Healer, employed for the most horrible afflictions normal treatments cannot cure. Their prejudice led to their only Parseltongue leaving when 'Ginny Weasley would have been saved sooner had your school been not a school of imbeciles! And forcing a child to do a task an adult should?! Are you even human? What color, is your blood?'

That, was political ouch.

Petrifications and deaths would have been avoided if only they weren't prejudiced and now they're paying for it.

So now Hogwarts has been run by a very tight ship since. Discipline is very strict, and all privileges revoked and no more points system.

That bit was too late though, should have done that 14 years ago for turnouts of good, disciplined kids.

'14 years is a very long time indeed.' said Remus. 'You're here for over two years now Holly?'

'Yes, a fruitful two years and some months.' said Holly. 'Living as a muggle is far better than in the magic world. I was able to finish Elementary with copious usage of Time-Turners and about to finish Junior High School in a few months now.'

Her words have yet to sink in.

Well to be fair, she lived as a muggle for eleven years before Hogwarts, it wasn't like she missed magic much.

To them, they canNOT imagine a life without magic!

'So what's it like in Muggle School?' Sirius asked her.

'Aside from paying about over 6600 Galleons every year-' three jaws dropped. '-because education is a really big deal here, I also pay a martial arts dojo 4400 Galleons every six months for my training. Just so incase I'm disarmed or under magic-suppressing cuffs or whatever, I can still fight back and not a sitting duck.' said Holly. 'And I can guarantee I got really strong now.' she said confidently.

'I'd like to see the quality of your training since paying for tutelage beyond 1000 Galleons is too much!' Madam Bones choked.

'Sure, once we got some shopping done since these two guys will be released today.' said Holly. 'Its convenient that it comes along with forgery papers for the muggle side or I'll have trouble explaining stuff away...'

'No kidding, we learned real Muggle Studies here.' Sirius chuckled. 'Never thought muggles advanced so much from the crap classes Remus took in the old days.'

'I'd say our people are so far away from reality by this point.' said Remus wryly. 'They still believe muggles live the lifestyle of the 1800s...makes me wonder if Muggleborns laugh behind our backs all this while.'

'No kidding.' Madam Bones snorted. 'Well, let's order some lunch now while we wait...Holly, how long does it take to get released here?'

'From my experience...they first make a theoretical timeline of your recovery process, and then start processing release papers a month in advance because its hard to create convincing forgeries and those forgeries are based on your preferences. Remus, Sirius, what did you tell the Asylum Office because for cases like us, they and the hospital collaborate.'

'Well, we wanted to live near where you live.' said Sirius. 'And while I told them that I used to work as an Auror and Remus is er, Unwillingly-Unemployed,' he said uncomfortably, 'They could not find Japanese Cover jobs for us at all since we're both total zeroes in having no experience. Not only that, only Japanese Citizens are accepted in the Police Force so we have little choice but to find Employment in the alley and just apparate home so now they're making our Citizenship Papers and stuff so we can find employment here.'

'Well, be warned though...these people are hardworkers, blood and financial status be damned.' Holly chuckled ruefully. 'Not to mention taking Overtime is considered 'good working manners' and they want deadlines done a day in advance. On-the-Job training will be damn hard before you're hired. When I trained my spells at the Summer Underage Firing Range, I could have sworn I have a drill sergeant at my back, demanding fast thinking, fast casting and packing a punch in my spells. Non-verbally. Being slow is inexcusable.'

'Seriously?'

'Yeah. You'll understand why when we get to the dojo tonight. Because such beliefs befitted the equivalent of fast actions in real battlefield.'

xxx

It took two more hours to get officially released, get a sealing device in the form of cuff earrings and then they converted money into yen with Holly requesting at least, ten million yen.

For shopping, living expenses and of course, training fees. They bought clothes from cheap clothing stores first with good reason...they'll gain muscle and their clothes won't fit anymore. She made them take the Bullet Train instead of Apparition due to so many CCTV Cameras in Tokyo's streets.

'Get used to fast-thinking and fast acting through here.' said Holly as they arrived and used the back entrance.

'They have two gates...why didn't we use the bigger one?' Sirius asked.

'That hunk of metal over there? That weighs a ton per door you know.' three jaws dropped. 'Only challengers use that door and the inhabitants of the dojo, myself included. To those without that kinda power, go here instead.'

'Ah...'

'Tadaima!' Holly called out.

'Ah, okaeri Holly!' a short balding man in green chinese clothes greeted...while a young, muscular boy was in a rather difficult position with pots.

'Speak English OK? Just for today!' said Holly. 'This lady here is Madam Amelia Bones, the official handling my case and these two sought Asylum here in Japan, my Godfather Sirius Black III and our family friend Remus Lupin.' she introduced them to the man. 'This man is my main Master teaching me Chinese Martial Arts, Ma Kensei.'

'Oho, it seems its a long talk indeed.' Kensei chuckled. 'Tell Ken-chan that he has a little break until we're done talking. I'll get the other Masters.'

'OK!' Holly spoke to the boy in Japanese. He looked relieved and eagerly took off.

'What on earth is he doing with all those pots of sand and what's with that stick of incense under his crotch as he squats?' Madam Bones choked out.

'Well, unlike me and Miu, Kenichi literally has no talent in Martial Arts but came here to learn martial arts due to him being a severe bully victim...so his training had to be different to practically make his body conform to it while we learn it the formal way by formal training.'

'Oh...'

'That thing he's doing is to build up endurance, strength in abdominal muscles and leg muscles. You can't call yourself a martial artist if you're easily blown off your feet so the waist-down must be at least, stronger than the upper half of the body.'

'Looks tough...and what if we too, have no talent?' Sirius gulped.

'The hard way it is.' Holly smiled a little too beatifically. 'Since you guys will train too incase the Brits yank us by force somehow, work hard, OK?'