Chapter 48

Now, under normal circumstances to normal British magic users, the word ninja will not mean anything at all. Albus Dumbledore on the other hand was somewhat of a scholar and had heard stories.

He first heard of them in reference to the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). While the just concluded, the Sino-Japanese war had been assumed to have an almost zero magical component with only muggles involved. The eastern territories were united, of sorts. The war with Russia however, was a slaughter. There were rumours of a Russian warlock strike team, as they might be called today, that was sent to Japan for some reason. They disappeared. Later on, of the seventy nine warlocks deployed at Port Arthur for one reason or the other, not a single one ever returned to Russia. From what eyewitness reports and divinations gathered, they were all cut down one at a time,in the hour before the Japanese navy attacked. Within months, assassinations on prominent warlocks were almost hourly occurrences in the homeland, focused on Moscow, and St Petersburg, weakening the magical effectiveness of the Russian Royalty. The revolution was said to have succeeded in no small part because much of the magical chain of command had been wiped out and infighting had reduced them to a pathetic shell of the organized force the warlocks were. Even if the magicals on the communist side were communist as such, they were still motivated sufficiently to go for a magical coup alongside the revolution.

After that war, nobody attempted to poke whatever hornets nest there lay in the eastern territories. Even the very word 'ninja' would come out only later. Whatever the world thought of the traditional Priests or Onmyouji, unstoppable assassins was not it. On another note, in WW2, wizards did not even try to get Japan to enter the war. Long memories and the prospects of annihilation were very effective. Quite a few American wizards disappeared in 1946 though, in presumed retaliation for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Native shaman communities, however were untouched.

By the time the cold war started, the Magical Russia had begun to open up to the world, even as they disappeared from the minds of muggle Russians themselves. The stories began to grow. Demons. Shadows. Ghosts. Ruthless Killers. Immortal. These were just some of the qualities ascribed to the mythical ninja.

Eastern immigrants were tight lipped, and even truth serums would not loosen their tongues, at least for useful information.

However, there were some who were willing to speak, and what they said was far more frightening. Ninja seemed to be killers, a whole army of magical killers who, from birth to death lived to kill. Humans capable of taking on Chinese War mages one on one, and winning. It was the stuff fear was made of.

And now, years after any tangible news about them, real live ninja were in London of all places. Obviously it was not an assassination that was being plotted. If it was, they wouldn't have set up shop anywhere. The target would simply have been dead and done with.

This was far worse. If the ministry had any inkling of how dangerous these people were...

You wouldn't need a dark lord to destroy the wizarding world.

"Is there any clue about their objective?"

Moody shook his scarred head. The mans face clearly showed what he thought about the whole situation.

"That's not all though."

Albus Dumbledore wearily looked at his long time ally and comrade. He let out a near pitiful groan.

"There's more?"

"There's was a Dragon Boat floating over London."

Albus Dumbledore let forth a most dreadful curse. He whispered a furiously.

"Merlin! Are you telling me that the Chinese are involved now!"

Moody chuckled pitifully.

"Constant Vigilance! Pays of again... Again, I'm none too sure if the ministry knows. But what I am sure is that even if a whole battalion of their War Mages landed in force, those idiots would still think the world revolves around 'em."

Albus blinked.

"How did you find out? Neither the Department of Mysteries nor the DMLE has the resources to track or even detect those ships. Even you have heard of the rumour that the Chinese have managed to travel to the moon on those vessels. Imagine...to travel the great beyond in-"

Moody growled. Those eastern territories were problematic. To them, Voldemort was a spoiled little child. Even the so called great Dark Lord knew that. Not even Voldemort was fool enough to risk the wrath of the immortal emperor. There was a reason why people did not mention the east except in ignorance. An entire part of the planet, with -must-not-be-named notoriety with respect to those in the know. As for the rest of the people, well they were called sheep for a reason.

"It's a dark artefact, a mirror of sorts which can only detect those who intend to remain hidden. It spotted the ship as it flew right over my house."

Dragon Boats were the flying Battleships of the eastern Navies, the largest of which were the 400 feet long behemoths called Zheng-He. They were ships of the line, crewed by Merlin knew how many. There had never been a situation where the east and west had clashed spectacularly enough that these avatars of destruction had cause to ever be used. And now, one was in London.

"I'll need more firewhiskey ."

Albus calmly walked out of the pub with a detached air, his vagrant appearance disturbed by none. He was almost panicking. Even though he knew that an invasion was not likely(mostly because there was little that measly old England could offer them) his head was still wildly generating vague and what would have passed as comedic visions of destruction of wizardry. It was so bad he forgot about his precious lemon drops. At the moment, Voldemort resurrecting was preferable.

XXX

High above Diagon Alley, a few kilometres really, the Spirit Shadow lay motionless, as it simply ignored the powerful winds that buffeted the massive eighty meter or two hundred and sixty foot ship as it floated high above the commercial capital of Magical Britain. It was one of the few ships of the line serving the Kyoto Guard, the armed wing of magical Japan. Of course, the fact that its current mission was similar to that of a muggle AWAC aircraft was not known to anyone below. Not that this would have been reassuring, just that it was merely less violent for a ship of its class.

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