Chapter Text
If I survive this, I’m punching that idiot priest in the face the first chance I get, Kamijou Touma thought to himself while failing to get his body to listen to the commands from his brain telling it to move.
Unfortunately for Kamijou, he didn't know if he would ever be able to get up off his back and stand up again, let alone whether he would get the chance to punch Stiyl Magnus in his stupid face. Thanks to that stupid priest losing his temper with the children, the ghost woman had turned hostile. Whatever she was doing to Kamijou, his body was completely immobilized and refusing to listen to his brain and move. Stiyl, Kanzaki, and Hermione were no better off, immobilized and down on the ground just like him. None of them could break free of the doll-like woman’s control.
This was far from Kamijou’s first brush with death. But if he and the rest of the group remained this powerless over their bodies, this might be the time that his rotten luck finally caught up to him and he died for real. What a shame that would be, and not just because he wouldn’t be able to give Stiyl the punch in the face that he so richly deserved. The even bigger regret was that if he died now, he would do so having never gotten with a girl. What he would give to at least live long enough to score with a sexy upperclassman, or better yet, a dorm manager onee-san!
Touma tried again, thinking of fulfilling his dream of a dorm manager onee-san waiting for him in bed, and found that he could flex the fingers of his right hand. Maybe all wasn’t lost after all, and he might yet be able to take a dorm manager into his bed one day. Flexing his fingers led to him pushing harder to regain control over his body, and somehow, despite the struggle to make his body listen to his brain, he managed to move his right hand up to his head.
As soon as his hand touched his head, the power of Imagine Breaker freed the rest of his body from the ghost woman’s control altogether. Earlier, it had seemed like Imagine Breaker was useless against this ghost woman’s power, but it would seem that it had at least some resistance to her after all.
The blonde-haired ghost woman whose appearance reminded Touma of a Western doll looked almost astonished as she watched Kamijou pull himself back up to his feet. She clearly had not expected him to be able to free himself from her attack. Once he was back up, Kamijou knew that he needed to decide on his next course of action quickly. His first thought was to try to use Imagine Breaker to free the other three so they could then flee, but before he could move to reach for any of them, he had a sudden instinct to raise his right hand into the air. As he usually did during battles, he acted on his instinct, and not a moment too soon, because the ghost launched a lightning attack against him that the power of Imagine Breaker in his right hand blocked in the nick of time. He felt pain and heat in his hand after blocking the lightning, and a quick glance down at his hand showed his index finger had changed colors, likely burnt.
Imagine Breaker had succeeded in saving his life, but if he could still feel pain and heat from it, rather than his hand negating the lightning completely, the ghost woman's attacks likely weren't entirely supernatural in nature. Touma didn't have any time to contemplate the nature of the ghost woman and her attacks, though, because another attack would come soon enough, and he now knew that he couldn't completely rely on the power of Imagine Breaker to shield him from the next one. Before the doll-like ghost woman could take a second shot at frying him, Touma charged toward her, hurrying to get within striking distance. He didn't have any way of knowing whether he would be able to punch her body with his right hand, and even if he could somehow touch the ghost, he didn't know what effect it would have on her. But he didn't have time to think about it, and he couldn't afford to sit around and try to think of a better idea. All he could do was charge forward with his hand balled into a fist, ready to face danger and potentially death yet again.
“Enough! Frillsand, stop!”
Touma flinched and whipped his head around in the direction that the shout had come from. He saw a dark-haired young man, probably in his mid to late twenties, if Kamijou had to guess, wearing a tan jacket and shorts. There was a headband tied around his head, and a webcam attached to it. The man had his hands on his knees and was panting, trying to catch his breath, like he had just come running over. Touma, after pulling back from the immediate heat of battle, realized that this was almost certainly Drencher Kihara, the man Touma and the rest of the group had come to speak with.
“Do not attack them, Frillsand,” the man who had to be Drencher Kihara said.
“They threatened the children,” the ghost woman, whose name was apparently Frillsand, said, looking at Drencher Kihara. “I will not allow anyone to harm them.”
“Neither will I," Drencher Kihara said, walking forward, still panting. "They aren't here to harm the children, Frillsand." He looked at Touma, and then at the rest of his group, still down on the ground. "I'm pretty sure I know why they're here." The man in the tan jacket looked back at the ghost. "Release the others. I'll have a talk with them, and then they'll be on their way." Frillsand frowned, clearly reluctant to free the others. Frankly, Touma could understand it after the way that Stiyl spoke to the kids. But she’d stopped from launching a second attack at Touma after Drencher Kihara’s interruption, and she let his words sway her again. However reluctant she might have been, she obeyed, and Stiyl, Kanzaki, and Hermione got up from the floor at last, freed from her power.
“I apologize," Drencher Kihara said, walking toward their group. "I was making sure our supplies were fully stocked, but I tried to get here as fast as I could." He sighed. "Not fast enough to prevent an unfortunate misunderstanding, but just in time to stop it before real harm was done, at least. Frillsand-chan is very protective of the children, as you now know, and others before you have found out at even greater cost." Kanzaki looked frustrated, though it seemed to Touma that she was more frustrated by her own inability to free herself than anything Frillsand had done. Stiyl glared at the ghost unhappily, but he at least had the sense to keep his mouth shut this time. Hermione, on the other hand, turned straight to questioning the man they’d come here to speak with.
“Are you Drencher Kihara Repatri?” she asked.
“I am,” the man in the tan coat said with a smile. “And given that there are two magicians, a witch, and Academy City’s most notorious Level 0 all here to speak with me, you all must be involved with that task force that got sent here from Britain.”
“That’s correct,” Hermione said, cocking her head. “We are from the task force. I’m surprised that you know about that—and about witches.”
“Since you came here to speak with me, you undoubtedly know that I’ve done a lot of research into the supernatural, unexplainable phenomena,” Drencher Kihara said. “In the course of that research, I found out about the existence of magic, including the wizarding world that you come from.” He shrugged. “I can’t say I have a wealth of knowledge about your world, but I do know that your kind exists, and that you can become ghosts upon your deaths, if you choose to do so.” His eyes moved across all four members of the task force. “As for your task force, well, all Kiharas are pretty much members of Academy City’s Dark Side by default, though I would personally consider myself more on the ‘beneficial’ half of that Dark Side rather than the ‘harmful’ half. There are a few stories being spread within the Dark Side right now, and the common theme among theme is the UK government, with the agreement of Academy City’s Board Chairman, has sent a task force linked with those murders that our city’s higher-ups want to pretend aren’t happening. Murders where the victims look like they’ve been killed by a vampire.”
“Do you know something about that?” Stiyl asked gruffly, still sounding angry.
“I might,” Drencher Kihara said. “But we can talk more about it in my office. I think we can all agree that it’s best if we have this conversation in private.” The task force couldn’t argue with that, so they followed as Drencher led them to one of the semi-trucks in the car park.
“Do you have some kind of precognitive ability linked to Imagine Breaker?” Hermione asked Touma during their walk to the semi-truck.
“I don’t know,” Touma said, shrugging. “Why do you ask?”
“Because lightning discharge travels at 272,000 miles per hour,” the witch informed him. “That’s a speed that you could never possibly block or avoid as a conscious decision. The brain could never recognize what was coming and tell your hand to get up in time to block it at that speed. It’s almost as if you knew that you had to raise your right hand at the exact right moment to stop the lightning.
“Well, I only ever seem to be able to do it when I’m blocking a magic spell, or an esper-based attack,” he said. “If someone comes at me with a regular weapon, or simply tries to punch me, I’m no better than the average person on the street. I tend to get my ass kicked whenever I’m fighting an opponent with superhuman strength and speed. Maybe you’re right, though.” Hermione nodded, seemingly not finding any fault with his answer. He could tell that she was still curious, though.
“Please, come in,” Drencher said, holding the door open and inviting the group to enter the office he’d set up for himself inside the semi-truck. “Have a seat. Make yourselves comfortable.” Touma sat down in one of the chairs, leaving Hermione and Kanzaki to sit together on the small, old-looking couch that still looked like the most comfortable place to sit in the office.
“Hello, and thank you for clearing things up and inviting us into your office,” Kanzaki said. “I am Kanzaki Kaori, and next to me is Hermione Granger.” She pointed at the two chairs next to the couch. “That’s Stiyl Magnus, and that is Kamijou Touma.”
“Yes, I know exactly who you are,” Drencher Kihara said, looking at Touma. “You’ve been involved in pretty much every single significant event that has happened in Academy City in the last few months, haven’t you, Kamijou?” The scientist smiled. “Oh, and I can’t exactly say that my fellow Kiharas are big fans of yours. You’ve disrupted the experiments of more than one of them.”
“And what about the ghost woman?” Hermione asked before anyone else could say anything. “Frillsand, was it?”
“Yes, her name is Frillsand #G,” Drencher said, smiling.
“How did she come to be in Academy City?” Hermione asked. “As you seemed to recognize earlier, ghosts are deceased spirits of witches and wizards who haven’t moved on after death. Is she one of them? Did you bring her to Academy City?”
“No.” Drencher shook his head. “She isn’t a ghost from your wizarding world. I created her. Maybe calling her a ghost is misleading, since she isn’t the deceased spirit of someone who was once a living person. Calling her a disembodied consciousness might be more accurate. Whatever you wish to call her, though, I did create her.
“That’s impossible,” Hermione said. “You can’t create a soul. Not through science, anyway.”
“If you’re right, and it really is impossible, then Frillsand #G wouldn’t exist,” Drencher Kihara said calmly. “Yet here she is, as you all felt for yourselves. But again, maybe creation isn’t the right word, either. Making the physical conditions possible which gave rise to her consciousness might be a better way to describe how she came to be, and what part I played in it. Think of it as the same way a foetus being conceived eventually leads to ordinary, human consciousness ‘arising.’”
“Do those physical conditions involve AIM diffusion fields?” Touma asked, thinking of Kazakiri Hyouka, the conscious form of all the AIM diffusion fields of every esper in Academy City.
“That’s a good guess, but no,” the scientist said. “I created her through High Voltage Cutting, which is powerful, unstable energy that is constantly emitting, creating irregular waveforms. Think of it as something like the diamonds in the flame of a rocket engine.” Hermione still seemed to be trying to make sense of how the ghost woman who apparently wasn’t actually a ghost woman could exist, and Drencher seemed to recognize her brain working overtime too. “Once you understand that consciousness is a fundamental property that cannot be reduced to physical matter, why wouldn’t it be possible to create disembodied consciousness through science?” Hermione bit her lip, obviously still trying to make the pieces fit in her logical brain.
“I think we’ve gone a little bit off-topic,” Stiyl said. For the first time all day, Touma was glad the priest had opened his mouth. “We aren’t here to talk about Frillsand #G, or how she can possibly exist. We came to you to get information about the organization that exists within Academy City that is responsible for producing vampires.”
“Yes, you did,” Drencher Kihara said. “Before we begin, I want to state plainly that any information that I provide to you has a price. As you’ve obviously noticed, I’m looking after a group of children. Things haven’t exactly been easy for me and Frillsand #G. Not only that, but I’m sure that the Board Chairman will quickly come to know not only that I spoke to you, but what I told you.”
“You’re almost acting like the Board Chairman is listening to us right now,” Hermione said.
“You wouldn’t believe how close to the truth you are,” Drencher said, smiling and linking his fingers together as he rested them in his lap. “I’ll speak to you, but only if you can provide assistance to help us look after the children. I know that Tsugutoshi’s ‘brain’ sent you here, and it goes without saying that she wouldn’t have any trouble providing the resources that we need.”
“Seria thought you might make a request like that,” Stiyl said. “What do you need?”
Touma only partially paid attention to the negotiation between Stiyl and Drencher Kihara, because it didn’t involve him and was not something he could help with. They went back and forth, Drencher asking for the things he needed, and Stiyl responding. After a bit of bartering, the two men reached an agreement, and Touma sat up straighter as the conversation turned from a negotiation of payment to their group asking Drencher the questions they’d come to have answered.
“What do you know about Millennium, the organization creating vampires?” Kanzaki asked.
“How much do you know about the history of espers?” Drencher asked back.
“The concept of espers was first proposed in the 1930s by the physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, in the journal ‘Physical Review’,” Hermione recited. “Oppenheimer proposed that, if consciousness plays a role in collapsing the wave function in quantum mechanics, then an individual could alter particles and actualize possibilities of their choosing. By making alterations to a person’s brain, it would then be possible for them to create an individual who could alter reality and make it so that they have a superhuman ability. His theory was not taken seriously at all within the scientific community until around thirty years ago, when Academy City made it known to the world that they could produce espers.”
“All of that information is accurate,” Drencher said, nodding. “But what’s missing from that story is how Academy City came to acquire the technology used to produce espers.” He looked around at the seated group. “You can probably guess where it came from, given what you’re here to investigate?”
“The Nazis, right?” Touma answered.
“Correct,” the scientist said. “While it’s true that, publicly, the idea of espers was not taken seriously for decades, it was a very different matter privately. Everyone knows that both the United States and Germany tried to produce an atomic bomb, but what isn’t as well-known is they both tried to create espers as well. We know, of course, thanks to the roles of Professor Oppenheimer and his fellow scientists on the Manhattan Project, that the United States succeeded in creating the bomb, while the Nazis failed. But when it came to producing an esper, the results were different. The Nazis managed to produce several espers. All but one died soon after, but still, they did manage to succeed in producing the abilities in people that Oppenheimer envisaged.”
“Unfortunately for them, though, they would have been defeated and overrun by the Allies before they could produce espers on a scale that might have helped them change the course of the war,” Stiyl said.
“Right,” Drencher Kihara said. “Their regime was defeated. But the technology they developed and the research they conducted survived the end of the war and came into possession of Millennium. That, then, brings us to the founding of Academy City. The plans of the people who first found the city, with the original seven Kiharas among them, depended on establishing an esper program, but they did not have the technology to do so. I do not know how that group and Millennium came into contact with one another, though I am aware that the original seven Kiharas did have contacts within the Nazis, so perhaps that was the link. Regardless of how they made contact, a deal was struck between them. In return for receiving the technology which would help the founders of Academy City create their esper program, which would eventually lead to the development of the Beginning Child, the first artificially-created esper, the higher-ups agreed to allow Millennium to create a base within Academy City. Supposedly, this was so they could monitor how the esper program developed over time. But they have not merely observed what happened in the city in the decades that have passed. I know this because various individuals within the Dark Side of Academy City have ultimately had Millennium as patrons.”
“I’m going to guess that one of them is Gensei Kihara,” Hermione said
“Yes, indeed,” Drencher Kihara answered, nodding.
“Do you know where Millennium’s base is?” Kanzaki asked next.
“I do not,” the scientist said. He didn’t seem to be lying, as far as Touma could tell.
“Then how do you suggest we go about finding it?” Stiyl asked. “Is there anyone who would know and either be willing to talk, or could be convinced to do so?”
“Kihara Noukan knows everything, of course,” Drencher said. “But that is an obvious direction for anyone in your position to look, and I can’t see a woman like Seria missing it. I assume she’s already tried to reach out to him and had no luck. Otherwise, you would have had no need to come find me. Noukan is completely loyal to the Board Chairman, and would never divulge anything that his master wouldn’t want him to, no matter what you tried. But I do know that Noukan despises both Millennium and Kihara Gensei, and it wouldn’t surprise me if both he and the Board Chairman are hoping that your task force can get rid of Millennium.” He grinned. “They just need some plausible deniability. They can’t risk having Millennium reveal to the world that Academy City became what it is because of Nazi technology.”
“Who else, then?" Kanzaki said, looking past Noukan, given the difficulties described. "Gensei Kihara was obviously involved with them, but he's in a vegetative state, apparently."
“So I’ve heard,” Drencher said. Touma, watching him, noticed that he seemed dubious about whether or not that story was actually true.
“We got a list of Kiharas from Theristina,” Hermione said. “Maybe you could confirm which of them you believe would know where Millennium’s base would be?”
“I can take a look,” Drencher said. Stiyl handed the list over, and he began to look at it.
“We are also investigating Shiokishi and Yakumi Hisako. Have both of them had dealings with Millennium?”
“Yes, they have," the scientist said. "They are the same Board Directors I would be investigating." He read the list over, crossing a number off as he worked his way down. After he was done, he passed the list back to Stiyl. Touma took a look at it and saw that fifteen out of the twenty names had been crossed off. Maybe more importantly, one name in particular had been freshly circled by Drencher Kihara."Those are the Kiharas you need to focus on. Unlike me, those five are very strongly within the 'harmful' end of the Dark Side of Academy City, so I suggest you proceed with caution."
“Who is this Kihara Ryoshu?” Touma asked, pointing at the name that had been circled.
“That is the name I believe you’ll be most interested in,” Drencher said. “He is a nephew of Gensei, and possesses many of his worst qualities, chief among them a willingness to commit atrocities without blinking in the name of his experiments.” The scientist frowned and shook his head. “To give you an idea of the depths he is willing to stoop to, it was just last year that he collected a group of unwitting test subjects, injected them with drugs to cause delusion and madness, and arranged for them to unknowingly fight their loved ones for survival, solely to test how strong their attachment to their loved ones would linger after the drug wore off and they were informed of what they had done. My understanding is that of those who actually survived that experiment, most are no longer living. They couldn’t take the guilt.”
“Monster,” Hermione muttered.
“I do agree with you,” Drencher Kihara said. “He is exactly the sort of Kihara who would be involved with a group like Millennium. But the biggest reason I’ve circled his name as the one you should track down is that I’m pretty sure he’s a vampire.”
--
Two Days Later
“You’re a bit younger than the men I usually do this kind of thing with,” Gokusai Kaibi said to Harry as they entered an illegal casino located within District 22, the district of Academy City that was entirely underground. Since Harry wasn’t using polyjuice potion to change his appearance in the casino, he decided that entering in the company of a Japanese woman would arouse less suspicion. It seemed to be working, since the doorman let them in without much delay. “You’re a bit more attractive, too.”
“Err, thanks,” Harry said. “I think.” He knew that Gokusai Kaibi did enjo kousai work—compensated dating, basically. “Do you actually enjoy your work?”
“Kind of,” Kaibi said with a shrug. “Initially, I got into it to make some extra money, but I’ve decided that I’m doing a tiny bit of good by helping miserable, middle-aged divorcees deal with their loneliness by using my esper ability.” Harry just nodded, not knowing how to respond to that. He knew about Gokusai Kaibi’s esper ability, Measure Heart, that worked like telepathy, allowing her to adjust how close someone felt to her in their heart. He could see how that would allow her to help men handle being alone and feeling lonely, even if only temporarily. “In case you were wondering, despite what Kakine said the other night, I’ve never slept with any of the men who’ve taken me on compensated dates.”
“Not actually into older men, then?” Harry asked as the two of them wandered over to the bar, acting as if they were doing so naturally and were there to enjoy themselves rather than coming to the casino for a specific purpose.
“Older, maybe,” the girl with bleached wavy hair said. “But only older by a few years, not by two decades.”
“Right, makes sense," Harry said, thinking for a moment about Narcissa, whom he certainly hadn't objected to shagging despite their age gap. He shook himself. Now wasn't the time to think about the beautiful blonde witch who had seduced him and treated him to a very good time before he left for Academy City. There was business to take care of. Catching the bartender's attention and ordering a couple of drinks at the casino wouldn't fit most people's idea of business, but for Harry, it was all about blending in. As he waited for his drink, Harry let his eyes wander over to the blackjack table where their target was sitting.
After three days of investigating, he, Astoria, Moulin, Hermione, and Kaibi, with some help from Seria, had identified two people they needed to carry out their plan. Shinohara Ren, a member of Shiokishi's security team, was one of them. What brought him to their attention was the discovery that he was selling weapons to criminals from Academy City's Dark Side under his boss's nose. He almost certainly wouldn't be long for this world if Shiokishi ever learned of it, which meant that he would theoretically be easy to pressure into compliance.
Harry was going to be the one to approach Shinohara, but had chosen Kaibi rather than any of his female aurors as his ‘date’ for the evening in order to blend in more effectively without the use of polyjuice, which he wanted to limit. Kaibi also had plenty of experience at posing as the date of a man she felt no attraction to, and her Measure Heart ability could prove very useful as well. She wasn’t too bad at cards, either, which should help them blend in even better.
“Ready?” he asked Kaibi after they’d sipped at their drinks for a bit. She nodded, and they went over to the blackjack table where Shinohara sat.
“Do you mind if my boyfriend and I take these empty seats next to you?” Kaibi asked their target.
“Yeah, no problem,” Shinohara said. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry noticed the man sneaking a peek at Kaibi in her pretty dress as they sat down. Harry placed a chip down on the table, joining the next hand of blackjack. Harry wasn’t going to leave this night up to chance, though. Before the dealer could shuffle the cards, Harry hit him with a subtle confundus charm. The dealer turned over an 18 for himself, but Harry got a 19, and Shinohara a 20.
“A good start,” Shinohara said, looking at Harry and Kaibi. “Let’s hope you two are my good luck charm, eh?”
“Hope so,” Harry said, making another bet. The dealer busted this time, making it an easy win for them. On and on they went, Harry relying on the confundus charm, and also receiving some subtle help from Kaibi to make sure he didn’t accidentally reveal how little he understood the game of blackjack. They kept winning, but for Harry, winning at cards was irrelevant. This was all about winning over Shinohara, and winning repeatedly at blackjack was meant to put him in a good mood.
“Looks like you really did bring some good luck to this table,” Shinohara said, nodding at them both after he and they won about 12 out of 16 hands, Harry having let the dealer win a few times just to keep from drawing too much attention or suspicion on their table.
“Maybe it’s you who has the luck, and we just happened to catch some of it,” Kaibi said. Harry grinned to himself, seeing this girl’s skill at buttering a man up come to life. Her Measure Heart made that even easier, allowing him to feel a fondness for her that normally wouldn’t have been there mere minutes after meeting her, despite finding her attractive and feeling in a good mood about his wins at the blackjack table. Choosing her to accompany him tonight had definitely been the right call. Harry was doing his best to make the man view him as a comrade of sorts, taking on and defeating the dealer together, but he knew that Kaibi was chiefly responsible for the smile on Shinohara’s face that grew as they picked up more wins and added more chips to their respective piles.
“You know, your Japanese is pretty good for a foreigner,” Shinohara said to Harry while rearranging his growing stacks of chips.
“Thank you," Harry said, smiling. In actuality, he couldn't speak a word of Japanese, but the Translator Turbo he had hidden in the pocket of his coat was allowing him to communicate perfectly well with their target and anyone else in the casino. "I try."
“You succeed,” Shinohara said as they watched the dealer turn over his cards, revealing that he had once again come just short of beating either of them. “Seems like you succeed in lots of ways.” He took a long look at Kaibi as he said it. “I’m Shinohara Ren. What are your names?”
“I’m Edward Mulgrove,” Harry said, giving the fake name he’d assigned himself for the night and used to buy his chips (with money provided by the UK muggle government.) “This is my date, Yamashida Yuuna.”
“Pleasure,” Shinohara said. He looked at Harry for a bit in between hands of blackjack, seeming to regard him rather than Kaibi for the first time. “If you don’t mind my asking, what brings a man from the UK here to Academy City?” Harry kept his face casual, but internally, he was celebrating. It was exactly the question he’d hoped to receive.
“I’m a business consultant and importer-exporter, here to do work related to the Ichihanaransai Festival,” Harry said. He gave Shinohara a little grin. “I couldn’t wait to get here. There is so much opportunity in a city as technologically advanced as Academy City for a man in my position. People back home can’t wait to see what I come back with.” Harry was trying to hint that he was an arms dealer, planting the idea in Shinohara’s head that he could represent a business opportunity for him. Seeing how the man seemed less interested than ever in blackjack, despite their winnings, Harry felt that it was working.
Deciding that it was time to move to the next stage of the plan, Harry intentionally went bust on his next hand while still allowing Shinohara to pick up another win. As Harry had put a rather sizable bet on that hand, he winced and made a show of shaking his head.
“Seems like my luck is starting to run out,” Harry said. “I’d better quit while I’m ahead.” He gathered his remaining chips, counting on Shinohara speaking to him before he could leave.
“Maybe not,” Shinohara said. “How about you and Yamashida-san join me for a drink at that table there?” He pointed toward a table toward the back of the room. “Maybe I can offer you some help in your work.”
“Yeah, why not? I’m always open to listening to interesting business opportunities,” Harry said. He stood up from the table and picked up his chips. “Let’s go, Yuuna.” Harry and Kaibi followed Shinohara to his table and settled in while he ordered drinks for all three of them.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that you sat by me tonight,” Shinohara said after the waitress had gone to fill their order. “I assume you know that I work for Shiokishi, right?”
“Was I that obvious?” Harry smiled. “Yes, you’re right, Shinohara-san. I work for a client who has an interest in staging a coup d’etat in a certain Central American country, and is very much in the market for the kind of weaponry that only Academy City produces. Not the dated, secondhand stuff that Academy City sells to countries like India and Vietnam, mind you, but the cutting-edge tech.” Harry leaned over the table and spoke even more quietly than he already had been. “He’s especially interested in acquiring some HsPS-15 powered suits.”
“You really are after the best, aren’t you?” Shinohara said, smiling greedily, obviously imagining the kind of payoff he could make on a sale like that. The danger in trying to arrange a deal like this one was substantial, but Shinohara’s greed was too great for him to use his common sense and heed the danger. His racket would almost certainly have been found out by Shiokishi eventually if he was this willing to sell tech as closely monitored and sought-after as those suits. Of course, Kaibi was sitting there next to Harry, using her Measure Heart to lower Shinohara’s guard even more and make him still more susceptible to their trap, but the greed belonged to him alone. “How did you find about my side hustle? If I’m going to enter into a deal as large as this one, I need assurances that you’re legit.” He wasn’t a complete fool, then. Just enough of a fool to let his greed paint a giant target on his head the moment his boss found him out.
“I came to Academy City well-informed,” Harry said, producing a few documents that they’d forged based on information that Necessarius had gathered with help from MI6. “These are the last few deals I’ve facilitated between my clients and a Bertrand Blouffe, who I believe you’ve done business with in the past.”
“One of my best customers,” Shinohara said, nodding as he looked over the documents. “This looks legit.”
"I also have these," Harry said, passing over doctored photos that appeared to show Harry meeting with not only Blouffe, but also in separate meetings with other alleged clients. It was solid work, and with Kaibi's Measure Heart cleverly manipulating his feelings toward them without him noticing, whatever suspicion Shinohara might have had was easily overcome by his greed.
“It all checks out,” he said. “I’m satisfied. Let’s do business together, Edward.”
“It’ll be my pleasure,” Harry said. “How about you explain your process to me, and we can figure out how many suits it’d be possible for me to purchase on my client’s behalf.”
All Harry needed was a few details that he could easily dangle over the man’s head once it came time for the blackmail, but what he got instead was a thorough, step-by-step breakdown from Shinohara on how he acquired the arms without anyone around to see him, the steps he took to hide the lost arms in the accounts so his boss wouldn’t notice their disappearance, and how he made sure that he wasn’t tracked or spied on while transporting his stolen arms. The man might as well have drawn a blueprint on how Harry could string him up by his balls and hand him over to Shiokishi, who would swiftly end his life once his betrayal was discovered. Harry went through the motions of setting up the logistics of a sale with the greedy man, but he was really focused on the last stage of the plan.
“I think we’ve got the baseline of things worked out,” Harry said. “But we should probably finish up elsewhere, don’t you think? Somewhere with a bit more privacy?”
“Mmm, I like that idea,” Kaibi purred. She put a hand on Shinohara’s shoulder and leaned in closer. “And we can celebrate in private after we’re done.” Shinohara clearly liked that idea, though he looked at Harry nervously. Harry just smirked and shrugged, suggesting that he had no objection to what Kaibi was hinting she would do with Shinohara once the deal was done.
“Privacy sounds great, yes,” Shinohara said, getting up from his table and motioning for them to follow. “I know just the place.”
“I’m sure you do,” Harry said. Once they were outside the casino, and Harry was sure no one was around to see it, he stunned the greedy man in the back.
--
Harry watched Shinohara blink and look around groggily upon being awakened before jerking back and struggling uselessly against his restraints after his brain started working again. The room was darkened, but Harry made sure to step forward and place himself within the man’s view.
“W-where am I?” Shinohara barked. “What are you playing at, Mulgrove?! Release me at once!”
"I'll happily let you go," Harry said. "But first, you should probably listen to what I have to say." Shinohara glared at him and then looked around the room, seeing not only Kaibi there with him, but also Astoria and Moulin now as well.
“You’re not really an arms dealer, are you?” Shinohara muttered.
“No, I’m not,” Harry confirmed. “The name Edward Mulgrove is fake, too, if you haven’t realized that yet.”
“Who are you, then?” the man asked, demanding answers even while he was tied up in a chair, helpless, and surrounded by a group of four.
“That doesn’t matter,” Harry said, shrugging. “What matters is that you are in a bit of a sticky situation here.” At a nod from Harry, Astoria stepped forward and placed several photos side by side on the table in front of Shinohara, close enough for him to be able to see them clearly. “I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what these are, but just in case you think you can bluff your way out of this somehow, I’ll go into detail. These are photos of that business deal you carried out with Spark Signal, one of the factions from the Dark Side of Academy City. In these photos, we see you selling what are unmistakably Shiokishi’s weapons to Spark Signal behind his back.” Shinohara looked up from the photos and stared at Harry with wide, panicked eyes, looking like he might soil himself out of fear.
“If any interested parties chose not to believe their eyes and doubted whether the photos were real, I also have this.” Harry nodded at Moulin, who began to play a recording of his conversation with Shinohara in the casino the previous night. Shinohara’s panic grew even more when he listened to himself describe the process through which he stole the weapons from his boss, cooked the books to hide the loss of revenue from their sale, and transported the arms without detection. “Once I convinced you that ‘Edward Mulgrove’ was the real deal, you were more than happy to tell me all about your process,” he said once the recording ended. “Unfortunately for you, I was wearing a wire that recorded everything. With the photos and the audio combined, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how hopeless your situation is.” Shinohara said nothing, but the thief groaning and hanging his head verified that he understood they had him by the balls.
“There are two ways this can go from here,” Harry continued. “The first is that I can drop these photos and this audio recording off at an Anti-Skill station tonight. You’ll immediately be arrested for gunrunning, but the thought of being arrested isn’t what has you panicking so much right now. You know that Shiokishi, with his contacts, will find out about your arrest quickly. He’ll find out that you’ve been selling weapons under his nose for months now, and he will take action, both to prevent you from talking, and to punish you because you’ve been fucking with him. I imagine that by tomorrow morning, some Anti-Skill officer who collects a second paycheck from someone else under the table will pay you a visit in your cell, and shortly afterwards, he or she will report back to their superiors and inform them that you hanged yourself in your cell.”
“No," Shinohara whimpered, shaking his head and closing his eyes. He knew his boss well enough to know that Harry's prediction was exactly how things would play out, and he was deathly afraid of Shiokishi's vengeance. Harry had him right where he wanted him. Now that he understood how thoroughly fucked his situation was, Harry could move on to the next part of the plan, where he laid out what Shinohara had to do to avoid these photos and this audio spelling the end of him.
“That’s the first option,” Harry said. “But like I said, there’s a second option, a second way that this can go.” He waited for Shinohara to open his eyes again and pay proper attention to his offer. “The second option is you helping us stop the organization that was behind the recent murder of that Tokiwadai student, as well as other murders that have been happening in this city. You do that, and you not only get to learn what it feels like to do the right thing for a change, but you get to escape both imprisonment and your boss’ wrath. So, what’s it going to be, Shinohara? Which way are we going to go?”
Shinohara swallowed several times, looked around the darkened room in vain for some means of escape, and then began to speak.
--
“It’s done,” Harry said to Seria over the phone. “Shinohara’s agreed to work with us, and he told us what we need to know. We’ll take care of Yaguchi tomorrow, and once that’s done, we can discuss our next steps.”
“Well done,” Seria said. “I’ll look forward to your next report. Contact me if you need anything.”
Harry put his phone away and came over to Kaibi, Astoria, and Moulin, who were standing and quietly discussing how the night had gone and what the plan for tomorrow was.
“Nice work today, everyone,” he said. “You were a great help in getting us through the card game and suckering Shinohara in, Kaibi.” Seria’s operative who had played the role of his date tonight nodded her head.
“It’s what I do,” she said simply.
“You two carried out your part of the plan perfectly, too,” Harry said to Moulin and Astoria. “Getting those photos of the business deal last night was critical, and since you managed it while remaining concealed and keeping both Shinohara and the group he sold the weapons to from noticing that they were being watched, we were able to spring those photos on him without any warning. Great work.”
“Thanks, boss,” Moulin said, pleased.
"Thanks, Harry," Astoria said. Her smile was much bigger as she thanked Harry for praising her work, which he assumed was because she was new to auror work, as compared to a more experienced auror like Moulin, who was used to receiving acknowledgment on a job well done.
“We got everything we were after today, and all of you played your parts in that,” Harry said to the group at large. “Now, I’m knackered, so I’m going to go back to the hotel and get some sleep. I’m not going to order any of you around, but it’d probably be a good idea if you all did the same. We’ve got another piece of the puzzle to fill in tomorrow, after all.”
With a wave, Harry apparated directly back into his hotel room. He tensed upon landing, having immediately realized that there was someone already in the hotel room waiting for him. Though he didn't reach for his wand since he recognized the figure sitting at his table and had no reason to believe she was about to attack him, he felt his body respond with a different sort of tension.
It was definitely a good thing that Silvia, the saint and royal maid strong enough to withstand that massive bomb blast at the L.S.S. factory that she’d been right in the center of, was not there to pick a fight with Harry. But seeing her sitting there at his table, drinking a glass of scotch, completely naked, presented a different sort of complication.
“Welcome back, Harry,” Silvia said. “Do you want a drink?” The bottle of scotch sat in the center of the table, and there was a second glass in front of the chair opposite hers. Clearly, she’d been waiting for him, as if he hadn’t already realized that.
“I’d ask why you’re here, but I guess that’s pretty obvious,” Harry said. “If you just wanted to talk about how the investigation into the Kiharas is going, you probably wouldn’t have taken all your clothes off first.” Regardless, he sat down at the table and nodded at his glass, accepting her offer of a drink.
“We haven’t made much headway on the investigation since yesterday,” Silvia said as she poured him a drink. “Not enough for it to be worth me coming over to give you an update. I’m assuming things went better on your end with Shinohara?”
“Yes, they did.” Harry took a sip, nodded, and put the glass back down on the table. “Our plan worked perfectly. We recorded Shinohara telling us that he’s been selling weapons behind Shiokishi’s back, and then we used that recording and the photos of that deal he made yesterday to blackmail him. He’ll work with us to save his own skin, and with his help, we’ll infiltrate Shiokishi’s R&D facility.”
“That’s great news,” Silvia said, smiling. She took another sip from her drink, put it down, and leaned back in her chair, blatantly pushing her breasts out at him and attracting his attention. “News worth celebrating, don’t you think?”
“Celebrating, is it?” Harry watched Silvia as she remained leaned back in her chair, breasts on full display. “You know, I have to say, I was beginning to think that it might be for the best if the two of us shagging last week was a one-time thing.”
“Is that right?” Silvia looked at him with one eyebrow raised. “You certainly weren’t complaining while you had me on all fours, biting the sheet and punching the bed with my fist while I came on your cock.” Harry successfully fought off a groan as her words brought the memory to his mind, but it wasn’t easy. “You didn’t complain while you grabbed my hips and came inside me, either. Was the sex not so satisfying for you after all?” The saint smiled at him sarcastically, making it clear that she knew how sexually gratifying their night together had been for him.
“How good it felt obviously wasn’t the problem,” he said. Silvia grinned over her glass at him as she took another drink. “It’s more that I’m just not sure that continuing this whole friends-with-benefits thing is a smart idea.”
“You’re being ridiculous,” Silvia said, rolling her eyes. “We were both upfront with each other about what we’re looking for, and what we aren’t looking for. There is no romance involved, neither of us are looking for anything deeper, and this will never be anything more than two single, attractive people enjoying their nights together when they have time in between the work that takes precedence over everything else. As long as we both remember what this is, and what it isn’t, what harm is it doing?”
“I can think of several reasons why it might not be smart,” Harry countered. “For one, even if we said at the beginning that this is strictly physical, there’s always the chance that feelings can get twisted up and confused when sex is involved. What if it leads to us behaving differently during our investigation, and not making logical decisions?”
“I am perfectly in control of my emotions, I assure you,” Silvia said, rolling her eyes. “I enjoyed our first night together, but it did not change the way I felt about you outside of bed in the slightest, and remembering how good you are with your dick won’t lead to me changing how I fight. That isn’t going to change, no matter how satisfying the sex was, is, or continues to be.” She stared at him. “Unless it’s your own feelings that you’re concerned about?” Harry shook his head. “Good. What other concerns do you have?” She raised her glass again and took another drink while waiting for him to continue.
“Even if we’re both in control of our own feelings, what if the others on the task force find out?” he asked. “It could make things awkward.”
“I suppose it could,” Silvia said, shrugging. She put her glass down and stood up from the table, but she didn’t go to retrieve her clothes, wherever they were. “But it isn’t as if we’d be doing anything wrong. We’re both single. It’s not like swearing to celibacy was required to join the task force, right?”
“Nope,” Harry acknowledged, watching as the naked saint slowly walked around the table and approached him. There were other reasons he could think of as to how it could be tricky if the rest of the task force learned about their casual sex arrangement, but he wasn’t going to share any of those with her.
“Then what’s the problem?” Silvia stood right in front of Harry’s chair and put a hand on his shoulder. “We enjoyed ourselves, we both know this is strictly physical, and if you do feel awkward about anyone else finding out, it isn’t like we’re going to tell anyone, or start groping or humping each other in public.” She smiled, running her hand along his shoulder and to his upper back. “No one needs to know about what we do in here.” Silvia abruptly stopped touching him and took a step back away from him. “If you really are set against doing this again, you can just say no. I’ll put my clothes back on and leave, and you’ll never find me waiting for you naked in you room ever again.” Though that seemed like a smart idea to Harry, he couldn’t help frowning at the thought of never seeing Silvia naked again.
“Or you can get up from that chair and take your clothes off, and we’ll enjoy another fun night together, no strings attached.” Silvia walked toward his bed, and Harry couldn’t help turning his head to watch her round arse moving from side to side with every step. “It’s your choice, Harry.”
As he got up from his chair and started to take his clothes off, Harry attempted to justify it to himself as an attempt to ingratiate himself with her. Sure, it might look strange for him to have casual sex with a powerful woman whose last-minute inclusion in the task force raised enough questions for him to ask Astoria to investigate her. But even if they said this was just about sex and there weren’t any feelings attached, there was always a chance that doing this with her could make her happy enough that she would let her guard down with him and open up enough to tell him why she got posted on the task force so suddenly after the Baggage City bombing happened.
That was what he tried to tell himself. But as he finished removing his shirt, unbuttoned his trousers and slid them down his legs, revealing the prominent erection tenting his underwear, he was thinking far less about investigation and far more about getting off with the sexy saint who had already proven to be a great lay.
Silvia watched him strip with eager anticipation, and when he stripped down to his underwear and climbed onto the bed and moved onto his knees so he could get into position to eat her out again, she was quick to adjust the way she was lying and spread her legs, making it easier for him to get comfortable.
“I was hoping you would use your tongue on me again,” Silvia said, smiling down at him as he got into position and moved his head between her thighs.
“If I’m taking you in my bed, I’m not missing the chance to taste you again,” Harry said. That made Silvia’s smile grow wider, but it was his lips kissing beneath her knee and along her inner thigh that got an even greater response out of the saint. It was a point of pride for Harry that he’d done a good enough job the first time for her to anticipate a return as much as she obviously did. But the anticipation only showed that he’d successfully satisfied her the first time his head had been between her legs. Silvia’s satisfaction with him would vanish quickly if he didn’t follow up that pleasant first impression with an equally enjoyable second time going down on the beautiful blonde. She may be a high-ranking maid of the royal family, but it was her time to be serviced faithfully.
Harry had already been pretty confident in his oral skills prior to their first encounter the previous week, but after that successful licking, he felt confident in his ability to please Silvia specifically as well. He remembered how he’d kissed her and licked her, and remembered what had gotten the strongest reactions out of her while going down on her. After kissing his way around her pussy, already more than aroused enough for him, he showed her that he’d remembered every little thing about their first time together.
His tongue ran up and down her labia to start with, getting her even more excited before he prepared to dive in, redouble his efforts, and work hard with the intent to get her off. Silvia bit her lip and squeezed one of her breasts as she looked down the length of her body and watched him lap at her pussy. She sighed and moaned quietly, and rolled and lifted her hips on occasion, not objecting as he slowly but surely put more pressure into his licking and brought her closer to her peak.
“I’m glad you stopped trying to come up with excuses on why we shouldn’t do this, and started using your mouth for better things,” Silvia said, grinning down at him and patting his head. “It’s so much better this way!”
As much as part of him knew that there were multiple ways that this whole friends-with-benefits thing with the saint could go wrong, he couldn’t disagree with what she said. He still had questions about her and how she got involved with the task force that he wanted to have answered, but whatever her full story was, it was hard to feel like he was making a mistake while he tongued her pussy and listened to her thankfully soft moans as she smiled and ran a hand through his hair.
When he decided the time was right, and she might be liable to start pulling his hair or demanding that he get on with it if he delayed much longer, Harry went beyond the licks and spirals and gave Silvia more of the same attention from his mouth and fingers that had worked so well on her the first time around. He put his index and middle fingers to work rubbing up and down her pussy lips, and his mouth made its way toward her clit. She whined and moved both of her hands to his head as she felt him change his focus, but Harry did not get ahead of himself or forget what he'd learned the last time. Based on what he'd learned and observed the first time that he ate her out, going directly for her clit would have pulled her back from the peak rather than pushing her closer toward it. But he remembered what had worked so well before, and he gave her more of the same now. Instead of targeting her clit with direct licks, kisses, or sucks, he treated it to the same gentle breathing that had worked so well the first time he went down on her. If he’d been overeager, he might have forgotten himself and tried to do too much. But Harry stuck to the tried and true approach that had gotten such a strong response out of the saint the first time. No matter how loudly she moaned or how sweet her arousal tasted to him, he stroked her pussy with the proper amount of pressure without penetration, and blew on her clit without touching it.
Harry’s patience was rewarded by Silvia grabbing his head with both hands, pressing her legs together against the side of his face and ears, and grunting as she came hard. Though Harry was pleased about being able to bring Silvia so much pleasure with his mouth and fingers, he was also relieved that she only expressed her pleasure through grunting, pushing on his head, and squeezing his face between her legs rather than screaming with pleasure. They weren't the only ones staying in this hotel, and as much as Silvia dismissed it as being a big deal since both of them were single, he feared the awkwardness if anyone else from the task force heard him making the saint moan her head off as she came. With the noise staying down, though, he was happy to feel her cumming as hard as she could.
“That was at least as good as I remembered it being,” Silvia said to him, letting go of his head after she finished cumming and smearing his face with the evidence of her orgasm. “It may have been even better.”
“I’m glad I wasn’t overshadowed by your memory of me,” Harry said lightly, moving back to sit on his knees. Despite his misgivings about the potential for this casual sex arrangement with Silvia to get messy, he was quickly coming to let go of his worries and enjoy another night with this beautiful woman now that they’d gotten going.
“Definitely not,” Silvia said, smiling as she watched him reach down and pull off his underwear. Her smile got bigger when his erection sprang free. “And I see that it isn’t just your mouth that measures up to my memories of our first night together last week. That cock is every bit as large as it’s seemed in my mind over the last week.”
“I try." Harry nearly thrust his hips to make his cock jump for her, but held back, deciding it would be too juvenile for a man in his early 20s. Besides, she wasn't here to stare at his dick in appreciation. She wanted to feel it thrusting inside her. That was why she was here; it was why she’d been waiting for him in his hotel room, already naked.
“Let’s keep trying some more, then,” Silvia said. She stayed on her back and spread her legs, but when Harry attempted to move into position on top of her, she lifted her hips and bent her legs back toward her head. “I want you to fuck me, Harry. Hard.”
The horny, demanding look in her eyes might have scared Harry a bit if he wasn’t so horny too. He had to adjust his position a bit and move into more of a squat above her, but he succeeded in lining his cock up and pushing it inside her. It was a rather abrupt penetration, with him pushing a great deal of his dick inside her with one thrust, but Silvia was more than ready for it. She was beyond ready for it, in fact. Her tight pussy was slick enough that his cock had no trouble sliding in deeper. But as he looked down into Silvia’s blue eyes, he could see that the saint was nowhere near satisfied with that quick, deep penetration. She met his stare and stared back, looking horny and impatient for more.
"Hard, I said," Silvia said, staring him down. "Fuck me, Harry Potter! Show me how strong a man you are, and give me the fuck I came for!"
Harry licked his lips, responding to her challenge by deepening his squat, pressing his legs against the back of Silvia's thighs, and leaning his weight against her. His next thrust had significantly more power behind it, and Silvia groaned and nodded up at him. That was all the encouragement Harry needed to know that she wanted him to fuck her like this, squatting over her and forcing her to remain with her legs bent back toward her head as he slammed down into her from above, burying his cock inside her. Every thrust was deep and swift, and listening to her groan the faster he got, he didn’t dare try and slow down or find a more comfortable rhythm. A pace like this didn’t seem like it could last long for either of them, but it was obvious that this was what Silvia wanted. She wasn’t interested in spending hours having fun or making love. She wanted him to fuck her with everything he had, push the pace as much as possible, and not slow down for a second until the deed was done.
It wasn’t a revelation to Harry that Silvia liked to be fucked hard. Their first night together had gone similarly once he had been inside of her, with the Royal Maid encouraging him to speed up and focus on hammering her pussy harder. He’d fucked her so hard then that the bed had rocked, and Silvia’s ass shook with every thrust. The hotel bed was rocking once again tonight, and Silvia’s buttocks were certainly jiggling with the pace he was fucking her at and the impact of his body smacking against hers. The first time he’d shagged her, he’d given it to her just like this, harder than he’d ever fucked a woman before. This second fuck was every bit as fierce and demanding as the first, but it felt like he was in even deeper now. As hard as he’d given it to her the first time, he had at least been in a position familiar to him, fucking her from behind with her down on all fours. He’d never had doggy-style sex as rough as that, but the position had at least been familiar to him.
This, however, was different. Harry had never been in this position before. Maybe you could call it an offshoot of missionary, which was about as standard as sexual positions got, but in practice, fucking Silvia like this didn’t feel anything like any missionary sex Harry had ever had. Squatting over her and thrusting down into her not only allowed him to get deep penetration more easily, but really pushed the idea that he was taking this sexy woman, bending her in half, and making her his with every massive thrust.
Silvia bent her own legs back and put herself in this position, of course, and it was at her urging that he was fucking her so hard from above. That didn’t detract from his feeling of power at all, though. It didn’t matter who was responsible for bending her legs back or moving their bodies into this position on his bed. It didn’t even matter that he’d initially been hesitant to resume their casual sex arrangement and take her to bed for a second time. He was there, Silvia was bent so far back that her knees were almost touching her head, and he was fucking her like she was nothing more than a tool with which to satisfy himself. There was no consideration of her comfort or pleasure, no concern for technique or restraint. Silvia wanted to get fucked, she wanted him to show her how strong he was, and he was delivering his best with every thrust.
Harry did experience some concern when Silvia started moaning rather loudly after several minutes of furious fucking. It was new from her. He’d heard her grunt as she came, and he could remember her biting the sheet the first time he made her orgasm on his cock the previous week. There was nothing for her to bite down on now, though, and nothing to muffle the volume when she went from grunting to moaning. Harry couldn’t kiss her from this position, so using his mouth to swallow up her moans was not an option unless he stopped leaning his weight into his downward thrusts and attempted to change the angle of their fuck. He had a strong suspicion that Silvia would not take kindly to any attempt to alter what they were doing, so unless he was willing to risk disrupting all of their momentum and potentially ruining the night altogether, there was nothing he could do to stop those moans.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He could always use his magic to silence her, at least in theory. In reality, that wasn’t an option either. If he was reasonably sure that Silvia would be unhappy with him if he tried to change the position, he was positive she would be furious if he dared to cast a silencing charm on her. Ultimately, Harry decided that it wasn’t worth the risk of pissing her off and ruining a good thing. She was being a little bit too loud for comfort, but he relaxed, reminding himself that Hermione and Moulin, the two members in the task force whose hotel rooms were closest to his, were several rooms down the corridor. As loud as Silvia was moaning, she wasn’t being that loud. They weren't going to hear anything. This no-strings-attached arrangement that he had going with Silvia was between the two of them alone.
Harry put all thoughts out of his mind other than the prevailing thought of shagging Silvia as hard as she so obviously wanted him to. The louder her moans got, the faster he dropped his hips and shoved his cock to the hilt inside of her. He blocked out all else, forgot about the task force, forgot about what he needed to take care of the next day, and lived in the moment. She was right. What harm was being done here? They were dealing with loads of stress and danger day in and day out. Why shouldn’t they seek out this sexual relief when they had the chance to, especially when the sex felt this fucking good?
He rutted down into her without a concern for her moans, and even added some grunts into the mix himself as he worked up a sweat pounding the Royal Maid into the mattress. He kept going up to and through Silvia moaning louder than ever as her orgasm set off. She didn’t have the opportunity to bite the bed sheet as she came, but she did a number on it in a different way this time, clawing at the sheet until she managed to pull it down off the corner of the bed. Harry didn’t think it was intentional, and he was pretty sure she didn’t even realize that she’d done it. She was simply grabbing onto the satisfaction of her orgasm and the relief that it offered her, and he couldn’t blame her for that. He felt the same rush of release coming for him, and Silvia’s pussy squeezing his cock as she came accelerated that end.
She didn’t have any problem with him cumming inside her the first time, so he saw no reason to even consider pulling out or finishing anywhere else now. He managed a few more urgent drops of his hips, buried his cock all the way inside the still-orgasming saint, and filled her with his cum for the second time. As he emptied his balls inside of Silvia, Harry could almost laugh at himself for ever thinking that this could have been a bad idea. Having Silvia bent back and moaning while he fucked her and came inside of her was too damn satisfying for him to be able to regret, despite his lingering questions about her. Harry pulled out of her and fell onto his back, feeling glad that the saint had been waiting naked in his hotel room when he returned.
Once he was on his back, it didn’t take long for him to wish he had put that silencing charm on Silvia after all, and cast an imperturbable charm on his door for good measure. It was only after he’d pulled out and flopped down that he saw Astoria standing just in front of the open door, looking astonished by what she’d walked in on.
Well, fuck, he thought to himself. So much for things not getting awkward, or us keeping this to ourselves. He just stared at Astoria, at a loss as to what to say. Silvia, on the other hand, didn’t have much trouble finding the words.
“Well, this is awkward, isn’t it?” she said. She didn’t sound too bothered by being discovered. She looked more like she was fighting not to laugh in amusement. That she didn’t bother crawling under the sheet, putting her hands over her breasts or crotch, or covering her body in any way further showed how unbothered she was to have Astoria walk in on them. Harry wished he could share her lack of concern, but this was undeniably awkward.
“Err, what are you doing here, Astoria?” he asked. Unlike Silvia, he did feel self-conscious about being naked in front of Astoria, and tried to use his hand to cover himself up. As Astoria stared at him, her eyes narrowed and her lips thinned. She’d gone from being shocked to looking livid with him.
“I wanted to talk to you about a few of the details for tomorrow’s mission,” Astoria said, voice dripping with anger. “I decided that it was important enough for me to come and briefly interrupt the sleep you were so concerned with getting, but I see you were too busy fucking Silvia instead of sleeping or worrying about tomorrow.”
“I can explain,” Harry said, standing up from the bed slowly while taking care to keep himself covered. “What happened was—”
Astoria crossed the hotel room with remarkable speed, grabbed Harry, and before he knew what was happening, threw him against the cupboards as easily as she might have chucked a doll she’d gotten bored of playing with. This was the speed, strength, and fury of a vampire. At first, he just felt the shock that came with her sudden toss, but after a few seconds, the pain of smacking back-first against the cupboards and then landing on the floor caught up with him. He didn’t think he’d been seriously injured, and nothing felt broken, but it definitely hurt.
“Leave now, before you do something you’ll really regret,” Silvia said. Harry didn’t hear any amusement in her voice now. She didn’t sound like she was angry, exactly, but she was taking the moment seriously and warning Astoria to cool it before this escalated even more. Harry didn’t know what he would do if Astoria wasn’t satisfied with chucking him at the cupboards, and he had even less idea of how he would handle it if this descended into a fight between the vampire that was his junior auror and the incredibly powerful saint he’d recently finished fucking.
“Fine,” Astoria said, though she still sounded angry. Harry had pulled himself back to his feet, and Astoria glared at him, still looking angry. “I can’t believe—after you told me to…” Harry’s eyes widened, worrying that she was about to reveal that he’d asked her to try and get information out of Silvia. If anything could have gotten this entire messy situation even more tangled, that probably would have been it. Fortunately, Astoria did stop herself before she divulged that information, but she still looked angry with him as she shook her head. “I just can’t fucking believe you.”
She turned around and stomped out of his hotel room, slamming the door behind her angrily. He winced at the crack in the door caused by the strength of the angry vampire slamming it closed. The crack itself wasn’t going to be much of a problem for him to deal with. It was nothing that a bit of magic couldn’t take care of. But fixing whatever had just happened was going to be loads more complicated. He knew Astoria had to be angry with him because she couldn’t believe she’d caught him having sex with Silvia after he’d asked her to spy on and question the saint in an effort to find out how she’d gotten involved with the task force so abruptly. He doubted she was going to take him seriously if he tried to insist that he’d shagged Silvia solely because he hoped that it would help him get close enough to her that she would reveal how she’d gotten posted on the task force so suddenly. He knew she was mad at him for being a hypocrite, but he was surprised at just how furious she’d gotten after catching him in bed with Silvia.
“Well, so much for things not getting awkward,” he muttered, shaking his head before sighing.
What in the fuck was going to happen from here?