Darcie's sudden interest, Parselscript, and Rintaro's guess

Wednesday, 14 January 1987

03:30 am

Diagon Alley

In the library within the suitcase, a cold fog was crawling, spying on the hidden corners and the hundreds of books and documents.

If one were to step into this enchanted suitcase now, the scene within could have scared the living breath out of the most highly trained and courageous wizards and witches. And why wouldn't it?

Two of the vilest creatures known in the wizarding community had infested this place.

Dementor and Lethifold!

The two lvl 1 Dementors, both 2.3 meters tall, were gliding here and there, their long, tattered black cloaks billowing noiselessly in the cold fog. Wherever they passed, the thinnest layer of frost claimed the objects as if they were deliberately and presumptuously leaving a trail of their presence.

In the middle of the library, the Lethifold, Lilith, fluttered endlessly.

The Dementors kept howling, gliding around it in circles, but the Familiar gave them no mind. Not to mention, Lethifold was levitating high above the two soul-sucking fiends. It was as if it was eying them with distaste and disgust; as if Lilith considered her presence higher than the Dementors; a noble among the peasants.

Not much had happened after Kai's return, especially considering that he had transfigured into Darcie almost instantaneously.

Then, on Monday morning, Darcie had returned to Diagon Alley, resuming her Page Duties at Flourish and Blotts Bookseller, the bookshop under the managership of one Mr. Pigplanter Hillam.

However, this week was bound to differ for the young Malfoy.

Darcie Malfoy's life had already taken a strange, but interesting, turn on the last weekend, when her mentor, Madam Villanelle, had taken her to the mythical place, Avalon.

There she had learned of the existence of the Six members of the Order of the Immortal Lotus and their identities that surpassed the concept of time. Those Six were the ones who didn't belong to this era, she had come to know. And, yes.

Madam Villanelle was the reincarnation of one of the Six, the Witch of Endor. That, too, she had learned.

Not to mention, because of a series of queer and fatal coincidences, Darcie had obtained not one, but two Familiars. And both of these Spirit Companions could top the list of the darkest creatures in the Wizarding Community.

One of them was a Nundu's young, and the other… a Lethifold!

The Order had decided to prepare Darcie for the fated battle with the Dark Lord and her Candidacy of the Indigo Seat; the only Seat that was empty among the seven rainbow-colored Seats.

And her training would begin this week's Wednesday afternoon. It was then that Madam Villanelle, in the guise of taking her to the Euro-Glyph School of Extraordinary Languages, would instead accompany her to visit hidden Magical Communities to begin her training.

Darcie Malfoy, though calm and composed, couldn't help but feel a tremble of excitement whenever she thought of that time.

If there was a change worth mentioning, then it was Darcie's sudden interest in the concepts of Kabbalah, which she had even mentioned to her mentor.

'Well, I am rather fascinated by the magical symbolism portrayed by Kabbalah,' Darcie had told Madam Villanelle upon being questioned. 'I also read that the Tree of Life and the Sefirot, mentioned in its various concepts, are related to Alchemy. I can't practice Potioneering without a wand, anyway. Alchemy is much more theoretical, right? I like theories.'

This all, however, was only one side of the coin.

For, hidden behind the innocent face of the young girl, was the most ruthless demon, fooling all, including himself.

Once in 3-4 days, in Darcie's room on the top floor of the Brews and Stews (-a restaurant-cum-hotel in Diagon Alley under the ownership of Ms. Clutterbuck Crispe-) this demon came out in the open, planning his hideous deeds with his ever-loyal fiendish subjects that were neither alive nor dead.

This demonic being was none other than Kai Stormborn, the Blood Demon.

It was Kai who had nudged Darcie to direct her research toward this new concept and mention it to Madam Villanelle so that he could learn it from a magical perspective.

And there was one more reason. A hope.

It wasn't the time to mention that reason, though.

Near the hearth in the library, in which red-white fire was blazing high, trying to fight a bitter battle with the cold fog, Kai, Rintaro, and Petyr were seated on three high-back chairs.

From this afternoon, Darcie's training would begin, Kai knew. If he had played his cards right, then he knew which training Darcie would undergo first. Along with her, Kai too wanted to dive deep into the various magical theories, putting his mind and heart into studying the ancient art of magic.

So, before forgetting all worries and plans, Kai decided to evaluate his gains and losses, resulting from the recent visit to the Pirates of the Caribbean.

But even Kai had to agree that things had surpassed the level and goals which he had hoped to accomplish in the Switched World.

Kai had just entered his Identity Period of 3 hours. Unlike the routine, where he would first make an entry in the journal for his psychological problem, this time he refrained from doing so. There were two reasons for that.

First, after his visit to the Random World, knowingly and unknowingly, Kai had made drastic progress in his Comprehension of the true essence of Facelessness. Much of the credit for this went to him acting as Murtogg, fooling not only the Contestants but the main Character as well. Then there was the fact of his Sword Spirit using one of the Faceless Contrasts to discard the concept of Self from his projected Inner World, letting it last longer than usual.

The second reason was that Kai had much to do and plan before the Identity Period ended.

Yet, in his hands, there were no newly gained Items, but a book.

No, not a book. The Book.

Kai eyed the first tale in the Tales of Beedle the Bard, a yellow stroke glowing sickly on his forehead.

Other than the Sword Spirit, birthed by his own subconsciousness, none could see this yellow stroke, though. This yellow stroke represented the unlocking of half of one of the three arms of the Yellow Sign. It also represented Kai's absolute mastery over the Script that could virtually Seal the entire universe, the Parselscript.

And this yellow stroke also represented his understanding of a part of the Ancient Magical Script, in which the old wizard, Mr. Beedle, had written these tales.

Kai's eyes kept moving up and down, left and right, his fingers flipping one page after another.

As he approached the last page, his gaze landing on the last runic letter, Kai sighed.

Both Petyr and the mad scientist looked at Kai, hoping to see some hint of his findings.

Kai shook his head, took a deep breath, and closed the book. "It's not that bad," he commented, observing the two characters' expressions. "If I am right, then Parselscript represents over half of the Ancient Magical Script. Hmm, you can take Ancient Magical Script as the 26 letters of the English Alphabet. Then Parselscript will have at least 15-16 of those alphabets in it."

Kai didn't say it, but his understanding of Parselscript had taken his knowledge of runes and ancient texts to never-known heights.

Comprehensions, by nature, were absurdly complex, their power immense.

Kai's Comprehension of his Reality Marble, learning Parselscript as the result, was almost equivalent to his studying runes, bone texts, glyphs, and symbols for many years.

One could even say that Kai's knowledge of these subjects, languages, and scripts had even surpassed his knowledge of other scientific subjects.

This was the power of Comprehension; the Epiphany.

This was also the power of creating a Multiverse Interdependency of the Primordial Laws.

However, Kai had yet to put his newly gained knowledge to the test. He still had ample time, and his schedule was already set for the foreseeable future.

Petyr's eyes shone with understanding upon hearing Kai's words. "No wonder," he mumbled, rubbing his chin. "No wonder, among all the parts of Ancient Magical Script, only Parselscript survived, taking the form of Parseltongue. The question is, why in the Mother's name Beedle the Bard possessed the knowledge of Ancient Magical Script? Sure, he might be the greatest of his time. But his time wasn't that far away into the past, either."

It was a brilliant question, Kai had to agree.

"He-He.. Ha-ha… Hahaha!"

The sudden peal of laughter made Kai's and Petyr's eyebrows jump simultaneously. It was as if some grand schemer had trapped his archenemy and was now relishing in the torture he would inflict on him.

This laugh had originated from a young man in a white lab coat, with a light stubble on his chin. In his right hand was a flip mobile, and his left hand was in his coat's pocket, giving an impression as if he had just stumbled upon the greatest mystery of all.

Who else could be, but the self-claimed and self-named insane scientist Hououin Kyouma?

As Rintaro realized Kai and Petyr eying him with stony gazes, his laugh came to a gradual stop, becoming a rueful twitch at the corner of his lips. "Cough! Cough!" he coughed, and then his face gained an incredibly serious expression, making Kai and Petyr narrow their eyes. "I think… I think I just peed a little."

'Motherfucker…' Kai cursed, balled his fingers into a fist, and drew a deep breath.

Petyr chuckled, his sly smile dancing across his lips. "Sure, sure," he mumbled, patting Rintaro's back. "Shower us with the theory you have come up with just now."

Rintaro was stunned. "How did you know, Lab Member 003, Mr. Fingers?" he asked, his brows raised high. "Oh! Haha! I get it. So… you, too, have fallen under the influence of my absolute charisma. Heh-heh! That makes you the second one after Lab Member 005, Ms. Humph."

Kai rubbed his temples, sighing inwardly.

Lab Member 005 was none other than Cersei Lannister. Her wrath could have burned the entire world when Rintaro had named her — Ms. Humph; because she had just snorted at something, then.

Lab Member 004 was Item-S, nicknamed Ms. Silence, as she spoke little, keeping to herself.

Petyr shared a glance with Kai and then cleared his throat. "Ahem! About that theory…"

"Ah!" Rintaro smacked his lips as if he had forgotten about it already. "Remember what Ms. Virgin (-Item-M-) had said about the Parseltongue. It's the tongue of the Old Ones. So we can assume that THEY know Parselscript as well. And if THEY know Parselscript, then we can also assume that some of THEM know Ancient Magical Script, right?

"I think… I think Mr. Beedle got to learn the script from either some unnamed entity or through some great secret. But he must not know the true significance of his findings, either. Remember what he kept shouting all the time…"

"IT's coming…" Kai recalled the words, his gaze widening. "IT's coming for me…"

Rintaro nodded. "How could the Deep One, the sovereign of the Harry Potter World, tolerate such meddling?" he continued, smiling. "Maybe that's why HE was haunting the old wizard, and ultimately got him for his impudence."

Kai fell into a stunned silence. No matter from which angle he revisited Rintaro's words, it all seemed just too far-fetched. Yet, as far as it seemed to him, a troubled feeling couldn't help but rise in his heart.

"HE and you seemed to be fated, my lord," Petyr jested, smiling. "I think it was right for you to command us to not speak HIS true name in the open. Even if there are some grounds behind our good friend's theory, it isn't like we could go back in time and do something about it.

"I am more interested in hearing your gains. To be honest, I quite envy our missing companion. She had struck a fortune this time, gaining powers I would have never imagined we, who don't even have a proper form, could possess."

Rintaro suddenly gasped. "Ah! Mr. Storm." He fell to his knees, tears welling up in his eyes. "Please seal the powers of Clear-Clear Fruit in me. Please…"

"About the gains and losses…" Kai began, ignoring Rintaro's entire existence, "… you can see for yourself."

****************

Kai's Items (Blood Demon, the Five-Crowned Prince, Lab Member 000 - Mr. Storm):

1. Item-M:

Code Name - Morning Mist, Real Name - Margrethe II Ingrid, Assumed Name - Meg the Fallen, Lab Member 002 - Ms. Virgin

2. Item-S:

Code Name - Item-S, Real Name - Seline Hao/Sanderson, Assumed Name - Eight Trigram Hellspawn, Lab Member 004 - Ms. Silence

3. Item-R:

Code Name - Red Sun, Real Name - ?, Assumed Name - Robin the Swindler

4. Item-E:

Code Name - Blue Wind, Real Name - ?, Assumed Name - Moraine the Elegant

5. Ghost Basilisk:

Code Name - NA, Real Name - Selene, Assumed Name - Selene Stormborn

6. Book Character No. 1:

Code Name - NA, Real Name - Cersei Lannister, Assumed Name - Lanny Stormwind, Lab Member 005 - Ms. Humph

7. Book Character No. 2:

Code Name - NA, Real Name - Petyr Baelish, Assumed Name - NA, Lab Member 003 - Mr. Finger

8. Book Character No. 3:

Code Name - NA, Real Name - Rintaro Okabe, Assumed Name - Hououin Kyouma, Lab Member 001