Over the summer, she had really made her mind up about joining the Gryffindor House Quidditch team. It would be a shame if she did not put the Rakurai into good use.

She glanced over her shoulder at Jon. "Have you narrowed down your options in the Cleansweep brooms, Jon-kun?"

"Yes." said Jon joining her and then indicating the broom he had pretty much settled on. After all the Cleansweeps unlike the Firebolts were not individually numbered. It wasn't a status symbol broom.

"How about you - chosen the kit you want? I would like to get it for you if you'd permit. A welcome to Hogwarts gift and a 'thank you' for the summer and all."

"You can't," Shinrei breathed, blushing, her eyes widening, "Jon-kun, you and your family have shown more kindness to me than I could ever repay. I insist on paying for my own little luxuries."

He consulted his watch. "Then we'd better go back and collect Jian so that the two of you - three of you if Luis intends getting his books as well - can get your textbooks. Have you decided on your optional subjects yet?"

She hugged the case of broomcare equipment close to her. "As for my optional subjects, I have chosen Duelling, Myth and Folklore, Hidden Talents, and Magical Languages. Alchemy, if possible, as I had a rather high mark in Potions. Professor Snape gave me an 86."

Jon did not insist regarding the broomcare kit. Shinrei knew her own mind.

"I think they were making Magical Languages dependent upon doing Ancient Runes in conjunction, so you'll have to switch one of your existing ones or see about taking an extra class if you can."

Shinrei silently blessed Jon for not being insistent about the broomcare kit. *Arigatou, Jon-kun*

She gave him a smile before reaching into her robes for the pouch of money that she had prepared for this shopping trip. "I will ask about taking an extra class as you advise, Jon-kun," she said. "I have no concern with having extra load, anyway. Life at Kossawa has been much; much more demanding compared to Hogwarts-dojo. Sometimes I find myself missing the pressure."

She looked up and gave him an amused shrug. "Do not mind me. I believe I sound a little mad. So...are you getting anything else or do we pay for our purchases now?"

"Well I am sure that you have the discipline to take six options." He smiled and looked towards the counter, "I guess we should."

He was enjoying this time and in a few minutes they would be back with Luis and Jian. He decided to bring up a difficult subject while they were alone.

"Shinrei. I couldn't help but notice that you seem uncomfortable around Luis Verga. I know you were raised in a strict community and I am not sure - well - I guess that you didn't ...emm - go out with boys."

If Shinrei Hikari was an ordinary teenaged girl, she would have blushed and stuttered and uttered denials. She was, however, the only female to be recognised in the Innermost Circle of the Order of Izanagi and that was not anything ordinary at all.

Ice shooting through her every nerve ending, she fixed Jon with an unwavering stare and replied: "I do not understand why Luis Verga acts the way he does, Jon-kun, that is why I do not favour being in his presence. He disturbs me greatly."

"If you meant having romantic relationships, I have never had any. I myself do not understand how and why such ties exist, Jon-kun. Such things are not to be a warrior's concern and thus I live by such beliefs."

Shinrei gave Jon a weak smile and sighed. "I really am from a very different world, Jon-kun. Sometimes I wonder why Master Kanjou made his decision about sending me to Hogwarts, so suddenly, last term."

She began to count out some money for her broomcare kit, putting the Sickles neatly on the counter. "Are we going back to Madam Malkin's after we are through here, Jon-kun?" she asked delicately, hoping he would understand why she was switching topics.

Jon had been quite embarrassed by Shinrei's declaration of not having had any romantic relationships. Really he wasn't the one who could best talk to her about such matters anyway. More the sort of thing girls sorted out between them.

Therefore, he was happy when she changed the subject. He paid for his Cleansweep. The shopkeeper tied it up in brown paper so as to be less conspicuous carrying it to Kings Cross.

"Yes, we can go pick up Jian ... and Luis. They should been finished getting their robes by now."

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

"That is enough," Jian declared at last. He descended the fitting platform and took off what seemed the hundredth robe they had fitted him with. "I will take four uniforms. No more fitting."

One of Luis's eyebrows shot up at Jian's show of impatience. So the monk had a streak of temper. Good. It was all becoming very interesting.

Luis watched amused as the assistants in the shop scurried to wrap four robes into a package for the stone-faced Chinese boy.

"I'll take three robes," he said to the tailor standing within earshot. "Make sure they're the ones that reach below the knees." Luis himself stepped down from the platform and picked up his bag and shouldered it again.

He reached into his pockets and counted out the money, waiting for their robes to be wrapped. After doing so, he turned to Jian and asked with a grudging, slightly impressed tone: "What was that all about, man? You not into fashion?"

Jian shook his head but remained immobile in his stony position. "No. I do not like being touched."

He looked at a tailor and asked "How much do I pay, sir?"

With the tailor's reply, Jian gave the amount stated and took the package of his four new Hogwarts robes once they were all wrapped. Without waiting for a prompting from Luis, he went out of the shop, mumbling his farewell to the people he passed on the way out.

He really did not like being touched.

Inside the shop, Luis paid for his own robes, stuffed the wrapped parcel into this duffel bag and left the shop. He found Jian outside the robe shop.

"You /could/ make one hell of a scene, man," he told the stony-faced Chinese boy. "I wouldn't be surprised if you get sorted into Slytherin even with your temple monk background and all that Oriental jazz about you."

Luis checked his watch and looked down the street. What was taking Shinrei and Sinclair? It didn't take that long to shop for a broomstick--or shop for anything for that matter.

"Okay, Hupi-san. We will wait for the Couple of the Year to come pick us up here after they're through with their broom shopping. I can't whisk you off on my own--you're under Gryffindor protection. Besides, you're not dressed to go skulking in the shadows with Slytherins."

His uncle had explained to Jian about the houses of Hogwarts--Hupi Xian himself was a Ravenclaw, largely mirroring his studious nature and razor-sharp intelligence.

Jian did not know where he exactly belonged. So far he had met students from Slytherin (Luis) and Gryffindor (Shinrei and Jonathan). Gryffindors seemed more...disciplined. He wasn't sure. Luis acted like a very confident renegade, not very observant of strict self-conduct.

If Jian had his way, he would choose Gryffindor.

"We shall know if when I get sorted, yes?" he answered. He faced away from Luis and looked down the main street of Diagon Alley, searching...

//Oh, but I do know where you want to belong, China-man, // Luis replied silently. //It's not like I'm blind or totally stupid. //

He sneered at no one in particular, his Snape-like smile landing on a pair of girls who looked like Hogwarts first-years or something of the like. The girls hurried past, looking over their shoulders nervously.

Luis idly reached for his ponytail and tightened the knot, half-thinking about getting a haircut. He finally decided against it. Capoeira masters mostly had long hair, anyway.

He crossed his arms over his chest and assumed a lazy stance against the outside wall of the robes shop. Like Jian, he would wait for the Couple of the Year to return. He felt like kicking something.

***********

Shinrei was very glad that Jon did not press on about the topic of "romantic relationships." For a warrior of her stature, this was ridiculous folly. Kanjou-sama had time and again told her that romantic love was for others, not warriors like themselves. The hearts of warriors of belonged to the fight, to their cause and their masters and their clans. There could be no greater love than a warrior's loyalty and Shinrei believed it.

Thus her heart belonged to Clan Kossawa.

She knew that someday she would have to be tied to a marriage--it was necessary to produce heirs in the line of succession in the Order of Izanagi. Shinrei was Kanjou's heir and she had passed the initial tests to qualify for an Ordination. In her case, she would cross the line when she got there. However, she had always assumed that someday she would have to marry a Kossawa warrior or somebody from a similar clan for political reasons. It was part of her duties.

But to do something for romantic love? It had never occurred to her. She brought herself back to the present.

She looked at Jon Sinclair with her best blank warrior's face. "Shall we go, Jon-kun? There are books and supplies that we have yet to buy, ne?"

"Yes, of course." said Jon. "Books certainly. I take you already have a cauldron and that sort of equipment for Potions class. Do you have a cloak for winter wear?"

He lead the way out the shop and back into the street spying that Luis and Jian were waiting for them outside the robe shop.

"Right." he said to them. "You'll all need books and then any other equipment needed can be collected from the shop across from Flourish and Blotts."

"I have everything I need, Jon-kun," said Shinrei, "save for my books and potions supplies. The rest of my equipment I have brought from Kossawa."

Luis looked at Shinrei for a long, lingering moment and at the silent Jian beside him.

"Hupi and I have completed our transactions at Madam Malkin's," he explained lazily. "Pity you two lovebirds weren't there to witness our new friend show a bit of that Oriental charm."

His gaze fell on Hupi again and he sneered at the bald boy. "Well, yes, of course. About books and all that boring stuff...Lead the way, Sinclair.

"I need potions ingredients and books," Jian said, ignoring Luis's taunting comments. "My uncle gave me other things needed for Hogwarts. Just ingredients and books, like Miss Hikari."

Jonathan also ignored Luis comments. What was the Slytherin's problem anyway.

"Right. This way." he led the way to Flourish and Blotts. He decided he wasn't going to 'hover' around Shinrei any more - maybe that would disuade Luis some.

Once inside, he pointed out the section which contained the Fourth Year books.