I'll pass. I think that sentence speaks for itself.

 

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5904185/1/ - Emperor by Marquis Black

 

Mm, I'd imagine it'd look like that - from your perspective.

And yet..

A scene of training;

Spoiler

Harry entered the room, finding Shigura and Shihiko as expected. The tea ceremony would start any moment, now that he'd arrived.

The Zen Master looked at him. "Ha-ri, would you bring Nagini in here?"

Harry bowed, turned, and headed back to his room. When he returned with the snake, Shihiko was gone and had taken the earthenware can with her. There were two cups on the table, steam rising from them.

"Put her down, Ha-ri."

He placed Nagini on the next tatami.

"One of these two cups," said the Zen master, "contains a deadly potion - so strong it works immediately, strong enough to kill with the first sip."

A déjà-vu - almost.

"Would you please serve us tea, Ha-ri? These cups."

This was why he had been ordered to fetch Nagini - the snake who could discern truth from falsehood, now laying calmly and silently on the tatami. So it was true.

Harry examined the cups. They looked identical - no, there was a tiny difference in the delicate patterns, seen only by the trained eye. But his eye was trained after his weeks in this house.

So the sensei knew which cup held the deadly potion.

Harry felt no need to ask - the potion would be tasteless, would be undetectable by smell. Which meant - when serving the two cups, a random chance would determine who'd receive the deadly one.

Totally random?

He looked again - the two cups stood at equal distance from his own position, not indicating any preference, maybe except for the tiny aspect of left and right for a right-handed person.

But then, for weeks, he had exercised techniques to reduce the importance of left and right in the art of bujutsu.

What if the deadly cup turned out his own?

He wouldn't know. Drinking the tea would kill him. But he knew that Shigura wouldn't let this happen. He might have been a Death Eater, or even Voldemort's right hand, and it wouldn't matter. He wasn't going to let Harry die in his own house.

So even if Harry had no idea how the Zen master might prevent such an accident, this possibility felt safe.

What if it came the other way around?

Would Shigura refuse to drink? Unlikely - the sensei expected him to find a solution, that was the purpose of this test. That was the only explanation - otherwise, this deadly charade made no sense at all.

Harry stepped forward, took both cups, offered one of them to the Zen Master, who accepted it.

"Sit down, Ha-ri."

He sat down, crossed his legs to the lotus position, the cup steady in his hands, untrembling.

Shigura held the cup ready, waiting for Harry to drink.

Harry moved the cup to his lips - a quiet movement, without haste, giving time to follow, to act. His nostrils flared at the bitter scent, familiar now after his weeks in this house.

He sipped.

Strong, hot, bitter - as expected, nothing else. He gulped, breathed deeply after the hot rush ... so he was alive.

Looking up, he saw the sensei's arm move the cup to the lips, a movement as quiet as Harry's own, as steady, as fluid - it would have reached its destination long before he'd found the time to jump, to reach Shigura, to throw the cup out of his hand.

The cup was before Shigura's face, supported by fingers and thumb of one hand. Now it touched his lower lip.

When the sensei's lips parted, Harry sent his silent scream.

As if hit by an invisible stick, the cup went flying, shattered, splashing tea through the air. The drops fell to the floor, followed by the splinters of what, moments before, had been a delicate cup.

The Zen master looked at Harry, a dark fire glowing in his eyes. "We'll need some new tatamis, Ha-ri - even the dried remnants are highly dangerous. But first, we need another cup and more tea."

And a scene of a different kind of training - Harry's seduction:

Spoiler

Harry shifted on his futon, trying to get to sleep, unable to calm down sufficiently. There hadn't been physical exercises today, so he wasn't as tired as usual, but he knew that even after hours of kenjutsu training, two pictures would fill his mind.

Or maybe one.

Was it his rudimentary level of haragei - or just a change in the room's aura? ... A soundless movement made him open his eyes.

A silhouette was coming closer.

The starlight from outside was hardly enough for him to recognize details. Still, he didn't need haragei to know who had entered his room, inaudibly stepping closer.

A soft rush of silk. She knelt down, within arm's reach.

"Ha-ri ... Do you want to visit the clouds and the rain with me?"

Never before had he heard this expression, though the knew perfectly well what she was talking about.

"I ..." He cleared his throat. "It's impossible, Tamiko ... I love Cho."

"Of course you love Cho, and you won't stop loving her. Is this a - barrier?"

A pained sound. "Yes."

There was silence for a moment.

"My knowledge of western culture is limited, Ha-ri. I know that your people mix emotions and longings in a complicated way - a way I don't understand completely. I do not challenge your love - quite the opposite."

How could this be?

"All I know, Ha-ri ... Your desire is strong - it is blocking your progress in your exercises. And it's me you desire."

He felt it, pulsing, hammering.

"Have you visited the clouds and the rain with Cho?"

A croaked reply. "No."

"Why not?"

"Because ..." Almost a sob. "I felt too young ... wasn't sure, I didn't know how - "

"I can teach you, Ha-ri. I can show you how to walk with her toward the ultimate harmony - how to guide her on this journey ... and yourself."

She was kneeling motionlessly. Even so, he felt her presence all over his body, all through his mind.

"Do you want me to be your teacher, Ha-ri?"

He heard his own ragged breathing. "Yes, Tamiko."

Another rush of silk as her kimono fell down. A bare shoulder showed in the dim light, over the line of her back.

He felt her hands on his chest, lightly, reaching the belt of his yukata, opening it, exposing him.

Cool air was touching him, inflaming his skin, melting his power, gathering all force in a still increasing centre of sensation.

With a fluid movement, she came to him and knelt over his body, her silhoutte illuminated from the side, creating soft shapes and deep shadows.

He felt her thighs at his sides, her weight on himself, softness pressing hardness, stroking, unbearably light.

A wave of hair fell on his chest, silky, heavy.

Her mouth touched his skin. A faint whisper, "Follow me, Ha-ri."

His senses were drowning, expanding, focusing on the borderline, on the burning confrontation with her flesh. And moments later, he felt guided, welcomed, encircled, his self pushed through a soft opening into new territory.

Now, go ahead and tell me that this writing resembles the usual clichéd crap about Harry Potter in Japan.

 

Are you kidding me? The two examples you singled out are fucking terrible, maybe even worse than the usual cliched crap. The teacup faith test was a teensy bit original, but the writing in that scene didn't create any psychological tension. Ha-ri. Just that hyphenated version of Harry's name looks retarded.

Seduction scene was even more atrocious. "Have you visited the clouds and the rain with Cho" LOL And of course the girl's name has to be Tamiko.

Typical 2003 fare, and fun to ridicule.

 

I'm going to wager a guess he ripped the scene off Shogun, or something.

Fucking autocorrect.

 

-_-

That sentence.

So much wrong.

 

Out of the Night by Raining Ink. The only DarkArts!Harry I've found who doesn't magically transform into a gigantic asshole. Cool magic system, a believable friendship with Draco, and one of my favorite OC's in all of fanfiction. It seems to be semi-abandoned, but it's still worth the read.

 

Not sure if Barb LP's work has been mentioned, and though I never read it there is a unique sounding Marauder-era tie-in she wrote to Psychic Serpent.

 

Barb's trilogy itself is pretty unique, if only for the scope of its writing and depth with which it portrays the wider world. It's comparable to Years of Rebellion in that respect, actually, though it's not as good.

 

Hm. I am reading it and actually getting surprisingly into it. I just finished year 5 and it's a very good Canon-replacement story. Not that it has anything in common with canon, but it's written in a very similar way, with completely different plot arcs.

The only similar writing style that comes to mind is Barb's Psychic Serpent trilogy, which left a bad taste in my mouth at the end.

 

I always end up recommending this:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1312532/1/The_Human_Condition

It wasn't a DLP favourite, but I enjoyed it immensely. A writer with a knack for story.