Three – Wrapping It Up
Kodama was a smart man and was able to put two and two together. The bug in the Minister's office was no longer picking anything up. All of his spies at the Ministry were no longer reporting in. He had too many of his people and weapons coming up missing from one of his warehouses, and the Ministry was trying to limit his finances. This had to be a concerted effort, he believed. They must have brought some really talented individuals in to handle taking out his people while the Ministry concentrates on following the money.
Right now he had no idea the size of the group that was attacking his people, nor did he know who they were. He just knew that they had to be really good to pull off what they accomplished. His biggest worry at the moment was the fact one of his lieutenants never showed back up after checking on that same warehouse. He can only assume she was captured, even though she was quite talented at protecting herself. If so, then under Veritaserum she may reveal some sensitive information to them and that might cause an issue.
She doesn't know everything, but she knows enough. She certainly knows of his other properties and where he spends most of his time.
It was time to update his contingency plans.
oOo
Harry was delighted that the young woman he subdued in the Ladies room had plenty of information to share. As it turns out Kodama had quite a few properties and a much bigger operation than previously believed. The fact that he was tied in with the Yakuza as well, made it more worrisome.
Harry decided to pay these new locations a visit.
After a couple more weeks, Kodama was wondering what else could go wrong. He had implemented his backup plan but no matter what he did, this outside group of people that were brought in always stayed ahead of him somehow. He was losing people left and right. The Yakuza was even distancing themselves from him.
After capturing over 200 more of Kodama's people, along with a few of the Yakuza who were with them, Harry, with help, started questioning them all to find out where Kodama was hiding. He wasn't having much luck until he started using legilimency and reading surface thoughts. That's when he came across a guy that looked like he wouldn't know anything important. But, as it turned out, he was a cousin of one of Kodama's personal guards and knew a little more than the others.
There was one location that no one else knew about from all the ones they questioned. It was a large, mansion type home on an acre of land in a nice neighborhood. The home belonged to Kodama and was where he lived. He kept its location a secret from all but a few select people and his guards.
Kodama had armed body guards with him at all times and in his house were two people he trusted the most. One was his second in command and the other his finance manager. Currently, the finance manager was afraid for her life as their finances had dwindled of late once the Ministry of Magic had started freezing their funds. She had tried many things to reverse the issue, but to no avail.
Harry, along with Sayuri and a team of twenty Japanese aurors, planned their attack on Kodama's house. They knew he would have guards outside and inside the house. Harry was going to take down the wards quickly so Sayuri and her team of aurors could start taking care of the outside guards. After the wards were down Harry was going to find Kodama in the house.
"How are you getting through all the guards to get in the house?" Sayuri asked.
"Invisibility," he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Since she had seen him do that at the Ministry on his first day and helped him test it with tech, she didn't doubt him in the least. Then she thought of something.
"Can you turn us invisible?" she asked.
"That is an excellent idea!" he responded, "and I sure can. I'll do it before we portkey over."
She was beginning to think her team may come out of this alive and well.
"Just remember that when you cast a spell," he told the whole group, "they will be able to see it and then be able to locate you, so be careful. You also need to cast spells to eliminate sound and scent."
They all nodded.
After their scout came back with a location outside the manor wards, they made the portkey. Harry had them all grab the rope portkey and told them to not turn it loose until he told them they could. He then cast an invisibility spell on it along with many more invisibility spells on every team member before he did the same for himself.
"All done. Activate when ready, Sayuri," Harry told her.
Sayuri activated the portkey and off they went. They landed around twenty meters outside the wards. The place was a good location so they were able to talk without being heard.
"Does everyone still have a hold of the rope?" he asked. He heard many affirmatives. "Now turn so you're facing the manor and your back is to the one behind you. Reach up and put your hand on the shoulder of the person in front of you. That way as we walk we can stay together until we reach the ward line. You'll also be able to tell when the person in front of you stops."
Everyone followed his orders and he soon felt Sayuri's hand on his shoulder.
"Once we reach the ward line, I'll stop and take down the wards. I'll put up some anti-portkey and anti-apparition wards as well. You can let go at that point and get ready. It won't take me all that long."
They made their way carefully up to the manor with each auror anxious about what they were doing. The outside of the manor was crawling with guards carrying automatic weapons. Harry cast strong anti-apparition and anti-portkey spells over the entire property. Then, as soon as Harry took down the manor wards and moved away from the group, he quickly changed into Ash and flew toward the manor. He could see that the guards were on high alert after the wards were collapsed. Sayuri and her team would have their hands full with all those automatic weapons facing them.
Guards were looking everywhere for the attack but couldn't see their attackers. Several more guards poured out of the house to join their people outside and defend the manor. The door was closed and locked behind the last one.
Ash sent out two blasting curses as he approached the last man at high speed. The first powerful spell hit the door above the man's head while the second blew the man into the door and straight through it as the first spell took out most of it. Ash flew right through the now open door without missing a beat.
When he entered the house, he saw five men with automatic weapons at the ready. They were geared up to open fire as soon as they had a target. Then one of their guys came crashing through the front door but they saw no one to shoot.
Ash flew up and landed behind the five men before transforming back into Harry. He used both hands to rapidly fire stunners and take down the five men. He then vanished their weapons, and cast Incarcerous to tie them up. He could hear gun fire and spells going off outside while he did this.
Moving through the first floor, he found five more men near the back entrance. He quickly stunned them and tied them up. He continued to look but found no basement or underground area beneath the first floor, so he went back to the front of the house and headed up the stairs.
Harry renewed his invisibility and climbed the stairs. When he reached the second floor, he could see at the end of the hall two men with automatic weapons standing guard in front of double-doors leading into another room, most likely where Kodama was located. Harry quickly checked the other rooms upstairs but found no one else in that part of the manor.
He went back to the hallway and looked at the two guards. He could tell they weren't magical so he transfigured their weapons into water and watched as they were in shock that their guns just poured onto the carpet. They reached for their side arms but they too had washed away. They next each drew a large knife from behind them and held it at the ready in front of them.
Harry cast a stunner from each hand and they fell to the wet floor. He tied them up really quick then floated them toward him and out of the way in another room. Just as he was coming back toward the double-doors, they flew open and two men stepped out and raised automatic weapons to fire down the hall at him.
A quick magical shield with one hand blocked the bullets while his other hand worked on a different protection. Harry transfigured the wallpaper on the walls to water then drew on his water elemental ability. Suddenly a one meter thick block of ice appeared before Harry covering him completely from head to toe. Harry dropped the magical shield and concentrated on the ice in front of him. He knew the bullets would eventually break it down, but he had other plans.
Harry banished the large block of ice quickly toward his attackers. It continued to take the bullets and started breaking up a little. Harry then transfigured the ice at the last second into pointy shards that he sent even faster toward his attackers. The men stopped firing a little late and were attempting to get out of the way, but the ice was coming too fast and their bodies were riddled with the ice that impaled them all over. The two shooters dropped dead.
No more shots were fired from the room so Harry started walking down the hall toward the open doorway. He was on alert for any other attacks. Once he arrived at the doorway, and stepped past the two dead guards, he could see three people waiting on him in a rather large room that served as Kodama's home office.
Kodama was sitting behind his desk, while his financial advisor was at a table with a laptop in front of her. The guy who was standing to the left of the desk and who was obviously Kodama's right-hand man, had his wand pointed at the open doorway.
The two men saw a red light originate from just inside the doorway and connect to the financial advisor sitting at the table. She slumped down into her chair out cold.
"Avada Kedavra!" the number-one man yelled as the sickly green curse left his wand and headed toward the doorway.
The curse smashed into the doorframe sending wood and plaster everywhere. Kodama looked over at his guy just in time to see his head slide off his shoulders and drop to the floor, followed by his body. After he watched his man's body fall over, he noticed a man shimmer into view just on the other side of it.
He was dressed in all black with what looked like a black dragon hide long coat that reached down past his knees. It also looked like he had black dragon hide boots on. Kodama recognized that face. He had seen it in enough papers over the years. He then looked around the room and saw no one else. No, he thought. Did Harry Potter do all this to him by himself? Surely, he had a team with him, right?
"Did you bring a highly trained team with you from England, Mr. Potter?" asked Kodama in perfect English. "Or did you come by yourself?"
"By myself, of course, Mr. Kodama."
"Impressive."
"Don't get me wrong, the Japanese aurors came with me today to deal with your people outside while I made my way to you. All the other locations, I did by myself."
Kodama thought his chances were slim if he tried to beat Harry Potter with magic, but perhaps there was another way out of this, he was thinking.
"I heard you are quite good at martial arts, Mr. Potter. How would you like a shot at a high master?" asked Kodama.
"Don't mind if I do," Harry replied letting his long coat fall to the floor. "However, just so we're clear, win or lose you're still coming with me back to the Ministry."
"What makes you think you'll survive this encounter?" Kodama asked very seriously.
"Well, I guess I'll have to make sure I do," Harry responded with a smile.
"Do you agree to physical contact only, Mr. Potter? No weapons and no wands allowed against the other?"
"I agree, Mr. Kodama."
"Then prepare yourself."
The two men stared at each other sizing each other up. Kodama removed his suit jacket during the stare down and hung it neatly on the back of his desk chair. He then removed his neck-tie and laid it carefully over his suit jacket. Next he walked casually around his desk on the opposite side from Harry. Once in position, he bowed in respect to Harry who returned the bow to Kodama.
Kodama then got into position facing his opponent. His feet were set wide apart and his knees were slightly bent with his hands out in front of him, moving slowly in a back and forth pattern before stopping.
"Whenever you're ready, Mr. Potter," he said casually.
Harry took a couple of steps toward Kodama before stopping with his left foot in front, his right behind it, and his body turned almost sideways to his opponent. His hands were low compared to Kodama's, somewhere around the height of his mid-section, his palms facing out and down somewhat, looking relaxed but ready.
Suddenly, Kodama sprang into action with a reverse round kick that Harry stepped back away from to dodge it, allowing Kodama's foot to pass by Harry's face unhindered. Kodama followed with a spinning high kick that Harry ducked under and moved quickly to the other side of Kodama. Harry attacked with some quick punches but Kodama blocked or dodged them all as he stepped backwards under the assault.
Moving quickly to break Harry's attack, Kodama spun around using a spinning back kick to land his foot on Harry's stomach. Harry was hit by the kick but managed to take off most of the power by jumping backwards away from the blow. They immediately came together again with Kodama releasing a flurry of kicks, elbows, and punches that were coming at Harry at an incredible speed.
Harry was immediately on the defense and found himself being forced backwards from the ferocious attack. Harry was doing fairly well with his blocks and dodges, however it was hurting just to block him since Kodama's attacks had a lot of power behind them. He was not wanting to find out what it would feel like to get hit by one of those if it landed where it was intended.
Just when Harry thought he was going to weather the storm, Kodama pulled a fast one and landed a kick to his ribs, breaking at least two of them in the process. Luckily, he had the presence of mind to grab the offending leg with his arms then sweep Kodama's other leg, sending him to the hard wood floor.
Kodama was shocked because he knew how hard he kicked his opponent. He was not expecting him to be able to function well after that. He was ready to go for the kill but found himself hitting the floor pretty hard on his back.
Harry quickly moved to the other part of the room to give him some distance while Kodama recovered from hitting the floor. While Harry was moving, he activated his healing ability over his entire body, taking care of the broken ribs and the bruises from blocking Kodama.
Kodama was back up on his feet very quickly, but not fast enough to stop Harry from healing. Harry was very efficient with that ability, especially when it came to healing himself. Kodama was expecting to see his opponent in pain but he looked fresh as a daisy. Maybe Harry Potter was tougher than he looks. Oh well, it was only a matter of time before he had him where he wanted him, Kodama thought to himself. He was good, but not quite good enough.
They closed the distance and Kodama tried the same trick again so he could connect with his foot in a vital area. However, he noticed that Harry had learned that lesson already and had made him miss completely. In fact, he narrowly avoided another take down by Harry if he hadn't pulled his foot back in time.
Harry attacked back with two front kicks as he leaped toward Kodama. They connected at his chest and chin but Kodama was able to avoid the majority of the power as he moved back away from the attack. Kodama followed up with a punch but Harry grabbed his arm and threw Kodama over his shoulder and toward the floor. However, Kodama grabbed Harry back and maintained a solid grip while he was being thrown and continued the motion so that he pulled Harry with him, causing Harry to hit the floor much harder as he was thrown over Kodama's shoulder.
Kodama leaped to come crashing down on Harry's head while he was on the floor so he could finish the fight but Harry rolled out of the way just in time and sprang back to his feet. He was a little out of it from hitting the floor hard and Kodama was not letting him catch his breath. He attacked Harry with swift punches, most of them connecting, before grabbing Harry's head and leaping with his knee slamming right into Harry's face.
Blood went everywhere and Harry went down to the floor quickly. That hurt, Harry thought to himself through blurry eyes and a foggy brain. However, his healing kicked in and fixed him right back up quickly. Harry realized that Kodama was definitely better than him using karate. He had many more years over Harry and apparently more experience as well. Harry was learning though. He was learning quite a lot, actually.
If it weren't for his healing ability he would likely be dead, Harry realized.
Kodama was sure he had him now so he took a few extra seconds to use his final attack and kill his opponent. He grabbed Harry by the head, standing him to his feet, since he was sure he was not able to function as well after the knee to the head. Blood covered Potter's face and he was not steady on his feet once Kodama stood him up.
Harry knew that in order to win he would have to trick him and take him by surprise so when Kodama stood him up, he played along and appeared to be still stunned.
Kodama let go of Harry and made sure he remained standing even though he was unsteady on his feet. He was going to kick Harry in the neck with a devastating blow that should kill him, especially since he would be unprotected.
Kodama's kiai was followed by a powerful kick at Harry's head. However, just before the foot landed, Harry dropped to the floor and spun around with his leg to do a foot sweep on Kodama's supporting leg. This caused Kodama's entire body to lift off the floor due to one leg in a powerful kick and the other being swept up into the air by Harry's sweep.
After Harry swept Kodama's leg, he leaped and did a spinning back kick that connected hard with Kodama's body while he was still in the air. Kodama flew back several feet and landed on the floor behind him. He got back to his feet but definitely slower this time, holding his side where he was kicked.
Harry followed up and leaped with a flying round house kick with his right leg. Kodama barely moved his head back away from Harry's foot causing a miss, but Harry spun his body in midair to bring his other leg around and kicked Kodama in the chest with his left foot. This knocked Kodama backwards and into the wall slightly.
Kodama came back hard and leaped toward Harry doing a sideways flip and landing a kick to Harry's chin. However, Harry had decided to leave his healing magic flowing after the knee to the head so with that and his quick head movement to lessen the blow, the kick did not do much damage. Harry shook it off and retaliated with a series of kicks to Kodama's legs, his midsection, chest, and head, working his way up. Each landed with varying degrees of success, hurting and frustrating Kodama even more.
Not letting the karate master rest, Harry continued his attack. He leaped again spinning in the air with a foot to the chest and the other foot following to the chin. This put Kodama back on the floor. He got back up slowly and was unsteady on his feet.
Harry closed in carefully in case Kodama was bluffing then started sending hard punches to his body which made Kodama drop his hands to protect himself. Harry then switched to the head with right and left hooks to the head back and forth, ending with a final spinning back kick right to Kodama's chin with plenty of power behind it.
Kodama fell straight over backwards. He was out cold even before his head hit the floor.
Harry turned and stunned the financial advisor again, then tied her up with Incarcerous. Harry tied up Kodama too and cast a stunner on him as well just to make sure he stayed asleep for several hours. He checked them for any weapons, wands, or portkeys then walked down the hall to the bathroom where he washed off all the blood from his face and hands, cleaned it off of his clothes and gave them a straighten to make them look crisp and clean again.
Harry went back and grabbed his coat before making his way back outside to see how the aurors faired. He found two gunmen with automatic weapons hiding behind a barrier while popping up to fire their weapons in a spray pattern to cover more area. Both of the gunmen had their backs to Harry so he hit them with two wandless stunners to take them out.
Suddenly there was silence as all gunfire had ceased.
Harry sent out his spell in a wide pattern to cancel the invisibility on all the aurors. He managed to catch a few but not all.
"Sayuri? Are you out there? Was that the last of them?" Harry asked.
"Yes," he heard her reply in relief
"All of you who are still invisible, step forward in front of me so I can remove it. Kodama has been neutralized, along with his financial advisor. They are both stunned and tied up in the house. A few like these out here with weapons are also stunned and tied up in there."
Harry cast the removal spell in a wide pattern and the rest of the aurors became visible again, except for two who Sayuri was fairly sure didn't make it. Harry went with her to the areas she thought they might be and cast more wide area removal spells until they found them. They were indeed dead from gunshot wounds.
Eventually, they wrapped everything up and took their prisoners back to the Ministry. The powers that be were wondering why Kodama looked like his face had been pushed through a meat grinder so Harry had to explain about the impromptu karate fight.
They knew how good Kodama was reported to be, a high master even, so was looking at Harry with renewed awe until he explained that Kodama was actually better than him and if it weren't for his special ability to heal, he never would have won.
"But I thought you two agreed not to use any weapons or magic during the fight?" asked one of the aurors.
"Not quite correct there, auror," Harry replied. "The agreement was not to use any weapons or wands. There was nothing said about wandless magic or my internal healing magic. I never actually used any wandless magic on him until after the fight when I stunned him and tied him up. I only used my healing magic on myself after he dinged me a few times. He hits really hard" Harry explained.
Harry allowed them to watch a pensieve memory of his fight with Kodama to satisfy everyone's interest. They all insisted on a copy of the memory for the trial while some assured him they wanted to watch it again. Harry obliged and left them a copy.
The Japanese Ministry was able to handle everything after that so Harry said his goodbye's and headed back home.
oOo
Not long after Harry made it back home from his trip to Japan, Ron and Hermione came over to talk to him about it and company business. They found Ginny, but not Harry.
"Where's Harry, Ginny?" asked Hermione.
"Well, after he and I had a discussion about his escapades in Japan, followed by a very nice welcome home shag, he –"
"I did not need to know that!" Ron complained.
"…decided he needed to go and get his mind off of everything he dealt with while away," Ginny finished without hesitation after Ron's interruption.
"Then where did he go?" Hermione asked not fazed at all by Ginny's extra information.
"Where else? He went to ride Rolly," she said as she turned and looked out the window toward the back garden.
Harry was way out on his lands riding his horse, Rolly, and checking on his cattle as he slowly let go of his Japan trip and eased back into his life at home. He stopped and dismounted to adjust Rolly's bridle. While he was doing that, one of his cows came up behind him and bumped her head into his arse, causing him to lurch forward and into Rolly more. He steadied himself by placing his hand on Rolly's neck.
Harry turned around and there stood the now fully grown cow that he helped deliver several years ago and ended up having to save her mother from dying after she gave birth. He had sort of bonded with the calf a little after she was walking. Over the years, they had said 'hello' to each other whenever they saw the other one.
"Hello, Girl!" Harry greeted her and started petting her. "I think you and Rolly did that on purpose," he said rubbing her ear. "So, what have you been up to?"
Girl, turned her big head and called back behind her. Harry looked and saw a calf running up to them. He took a drink from his mom as Harry waited. Then the calf came up to Harry. He promptly knelt down and gave the little guy a rub, before the calf bounded off again.
"So, you have one of your own now?" he asked as he stood before Girl.
She bumped his hand so he petted her some more. As he did he looked up to see where her calf went.
"You better go corral your youngster, Girl. Looks like he's headed for his daddy, the Boss," Harry said pointing.
Girl turned and left calling her son to come back and stay away from the big bull. It doesn't matter if the bull was his father. You don't mess with the Boss.
Harry mounted up again and rode Rolly back to the barn so he could unsaddle him and brush him down. While he made Rolly happy with his ministrations, he wondered if Ginny would be ready for another round before dinner.
However, when he walked in the back door he found his wife, along with Ron and Hermione sitting around the kitchen table drinking tea.
"Hey, Hermione! Hey, Ron!" he greeted them before coming up behind Ginny. He kissed her on the neck and whispered in her ear. "I was wanting to go another round with you before dinner, but we'll have to wait now."
Ginny laughed. "I'm game," she replied.
"Are you guys staying for dinner?" Harry asked his two best friends and business partners.
"Yes! My sister already invited us and I'll never turn down Leru's cooking," replied Ron.
"Great!" Harry replied.
"We do have some things to discuss with you, Harry," Hermione informed him.
"We also wouldn't mind an update on your Japan trip," Ron added.
"Alright, let me go get cleaned up and I'll join you for dinner."
Harry headed back to the master suite, leaving them to their teas.
Once he was cleaned up and changed into some clean but comfortable clothes, he rejoined his wife and friends in the lounge. They went over the changes they made to their products to make them more difficult to reverse engineer and how things were going with the business before Harry went through his Japan trip and told of his adventures there. Ginny had to sit through it again.
By the time they were done, dinner was ready and it was quite delicious. As usual, Leru was in true form and they all ate their fill.
Hermione noticed that Harry and Ginny kept giving each other furtive glances now and then during the meal and was wondering what was going on. She finally had to ask.
"Alright, you two. Spill it! There's something going on and I believe it's more than you wanting us to leave so you can shag again. Why are you guys acting like that?"
Ron paused from his eating just long enough to look up and see what Hermione was talking about. He never noticed they were acting differently.
"Whatever do you mean, Hermione?" asked Harry innocently as he smiled at her.
"You know what I mean, Harry. There's something different about you two and you know it, so what is it?"
Harry smile grew bigger and Ginny cracked up laughing. Even Ron stopped eating after that and paid attention. Harry and Ginny looked at each other and agreed to tell their friends with just silent communication.
"Okay, Hermione," Ginny replied, "we'll tell you but we were waiting for this Sunday to announce it to the whole family. We haven't even told Mum and Dad yet so you guys should feel very privileged to be the first ones to know."
"I was just told this afternoon myself when I came home," added Harry.
"No way!" Hermione said excitedly. "Are you serious?" she asked already figuring out where Ginny was likely going with this.
"What?" asked Ron confused.
"That's right. I'm going to retire from Quidditch," Ginny told them.
"But, Ginny, you're right at the top of your career. It would be crazy to retire this early!" Ron objected. "In fact, you're probably the best chaser in the league."
"Thanks, Ron, for your vote of confidence, but I don't think it wise to continue playing in my condition."
"Condition? What condition?" he asked confused.
"For Merlin's sake, Ron! Your sister is pregnant," Hermione told him impatiently.
Ron's eyes grew big and he went completely silent after that news.
"Congratulations, Ginny, and you too, Harry, on your first child! I'm so happy for you two," Hermione told them. "Your mum is going to be over the moon, Ginny."
"Don't I know it," she replied smiling. "Make sure you guys keep this a secret until we can announce it at the Burrow during the Sunday get together. Alright?"
"No problem, Ginny. We won't say a word," answered Hermione.
Ginny turned to her brother for his confirmation but Ron was still just staring at her without saying a word.
He had even stopped eating altogether.
"I think you broke him, Ginny," Harry told her with a smile.
The End