Chapter 2
Departure
"And you are sure?" the Swedish woman asked, trying to conceal her worry.
"Yes, Astrid I am,…" Hermione rolled her eyes, she had been asked this time and time again, yes she was quite sure of what she wanted to do.
"I still can't believe you, your magic will never be the same, even if you decide to come back you will be no different than a squib maybe a tad more powerful but that's it!" the Rune Master tried to reason with her friend and student.
"I know,…" Hermione sighed while she continued to pack.
These arguments had been going on for weeks now and frankly Hermione was tired of them, yes she had considered the repercussions quite carefully but to be honest she had been playing with that particular idea for over half a year, a long time before she had even mentioned it to Astrid.
Hermione had decided that she had once more reached a point where she wanted to move on, Sweden while somewhat distracting had not held what she had been looking for and frankly she doubted that she would find her peace anywhere else on Earth, so the curly haired witch had decided to leave this world behind and explore the Elemental countries and hopefully settle there.
She had completed her mastery of Runes and while she loved her quirky master and really didn't want to see her distressed she had already decided and was sticking to her decision. She did this to start fresh in a world where nobody knew her name or her dead friends.
And so what if it would cost her, her magic? That didn't matter, MAGIC didn't matter to her,… she hadn't even used her wand in over a year.
The runes she employed could be powered through channeling her magic into her fingers and touching them. Hermione had theorized that her ability to use Runes most likely wouldn't change in the Elemental countries thanks to the fact that chakra was so similar to magic. Concerning the rest,… cleaning, cooking and washing? Please she had grown up as a muggle, menial tasks were her smallest problem. And the occasional potion? A wand was only needed for the most complicated ones and those she would probably not need. And finally transportation,… okay so it wasn't instant travel but she had time and a car in Sweden and for the longer distances she had no problems with using an airplane. She wasn't sure what would happen in the Elemental Countries but she was sure that she would find her way from point A to point B somehow. So,… no, she wouldn't miss her magic, not one bit!
With a resolute push Hermione closed her last suitcase before downsizing it with the help of two strategically placed Runes, the minimized suitcase was casually sealed into her runic belt before the young witch turned around to her former Master.
When her eyes fell on Astrid's glistening eyes Hermione's gaze became softer and she felt guilty for being so cool to the other witch, "Astrid, you should know that you are very important to me but I have to do this. The world and especially MAGIC constricts me, it feels wrong and every day I have to force myself to get up only to be reminded of those I have lost in the simplest things. I want to start over, to begin anew. These three years in Sweden have helped me,… you have helped me but I have this strong urge to leave it all behind me, to go to the Elementals, to forget magic and frankly I'm done with denying my gut instinct. It has proven to be right again and again… I'm sorry that this decision will hurt you."
Hermione sighed at the last sentence and hugged the trembling older woman with tears in her eyes. She knew it was cold to leave her mentor like that and to most likely never see her again but she was determined.
Two hours later Hermione took her flight to Tokyo, with only hand luggage and her runic belt.
The runic belt had been of her first creations after mastering more than the basics in Runes. On the outside it was just a thick black silk belt that went around her waist with a big bronze buckle on the front that was decorated with an intricate carving pattern, the deceptive item fit in with all the other belts muggle women wore these days as an accessory but it was far from being only that.
The small carvings on the metal were actually runes for protection, durability, anti-theft and repair. It had been quite the chore to explain to the muggle blacksmith what she wanted and how it had to be placed and frankly it hadn't been cheap either but oh SO worth it. The first belt she had ever created had been out of brown leather and it had been okay at that time because she didn't really need it for anything but her daily life but now that she would go into the Elementals and most likely never return? That was a whole different can of worms, Hermione simply NEEDED to make sure that the things she brought with her would be secure and at the same time easily accessible for herself.
The next check point on her list of preparations was a set of potions; Hermione was planning on entering a dimension with an Asian culture and live there for the rest of her life. She had to be able to blend in with the populace no questions asked. For that purpose she had spent a big amount of gold that Harry had bequeathed to her on a universal language potion that would enhance her ability to pick up a language pattern as well as an identity theft potion, while procuring the identity theft potion she was nearly caught by an undercover Korean auror. That was an experience that sent her blood pumping for the first time on so many years and Hermione wasn't sure if she loved or hated that feeling.
After her arrival in Japan she took some time to check out the security that was placed around the Elemental countries entrance because she really didn't want to be registered or placed under secrecy charms. It was laughable, there was only one wizard per shift and that person normally either slept through most of the time, read a newspaper or did something else than their duty of guarding the entrance.
After confirming the extend of the security measures a second time just to be on the safe side, Hermione spent a relaxing week in Tokyo, changing the last parts of her currency into jewels and gold along with spending it on hundreds of books, from different genres that wouldn't be available in the Elemental Countries. Furthermore she used her time in Tokyo to pick up on the Japanese language and get used to the feeling of the language. It was a strange feeling, her Occlumency skills literally let her watch how her brain absorbed each and every word around her and filed it away until exclamations started to make sense, then basic sentences and at the end of the week Hermione had listened and participated in a discussion about ethics strangely enough.
On a Tuesday Hermione finally felt ready to escape Earth and so she sealed all her last minute purchases into her rune belt, put on hiking boots, a durable pair of jeans as well as several different layers of shirts and sweatshirts to peal herself out of it. To the brown haired witch it was just sensible to wear clothes in which she had enough mobility to sneak around and do naughty things instead of her normal muggle clothes or Merlin forbid robes. Additionally she had Harry's invisible cloak neatly folded up in the pocket of her jacket, the magical object of Death was in easy reach to help her slip away from this world and into another.
New Beginnings
To be honest the trip through the portal was disappointingly boring, no rollercoaster, no deep voice, no bright light. Instead she felt a small tingle on her skin that was even weaker than the normal floo travel experience, a soft yellow light shone during the two seconds she was neither here nor there and then Hermione was standing inside a cave with ancient Japanese writing and runes on the walls.
The curly haired woman had stared dumbly for a moment before making her way cautiously through the nearly completely round cave. A gaze behind her to the entrance to Earth made her gape, if she hadn't known where exactly the portal to her world lay, Hermione would have certainly never found it. After another curious gaze around the nearly spherical room, the witch made her way to the side of the cave that looked a bit different from the rest and found the entrance of the cave.
Hermione breathed in the clear summer night air and looked at the shadowed landscape before her. From far away she could see the lights of a village or town while the scant moonlight threw large shadows onto the mountain range she was standing upon, even the moon was different Hermione noted absentmindedly while she took everything in. The shadows would have intimidated and frightened her if she had been five years younger, now though the only thing she felt was soothing comfort while the dark surrounded her like a blanket. After a near endless moment the curly haired young woman vanished back into the cave entrance and out of sight of anybody who glanced up to the rock mass the cave was nestled in.
Back in the cave Hermione felt suddenly very tired, she hadn't slept well in the last few days her mind had been working overtime to make sure that she didn't forget anything. So she tiredly unsealed her sleeping bag after putting up some protection runes around her sleeping area and then she drifted off to sleep at the cave entrance. The lights and consequently the village they had originated from were her last thought before she sank into Morpheus arms, she would cautiously investigate this human settlement in the morning.
New identity
During the first two weeks in the Elemental Countries Hermione wandered from the small village that was situated at the foot of the mountain to a slightly bigger one only two hours away. On the way Hermione noted that the whole region was pretty rangy and she had to take detours more than once when a rock slide obstructed her path.
The moment the witch came into vicinity of the next village she put herself under notice-me-not and disillusion spells to prevent anyone from noticing her. After some exploration Hermione noted that the village, while still small in comparison to the towns and cities on Earth was big enough to have a rural hospital, a market place and a school. The young muggleborn contemplated the idea of continuing further on the path that led through the mountains but in the end decided against it, after all she couldn't be sure if the next village she found was equipped with a hospital.
The reason for that was that in all likelihood the young witch would need a hospital to complete her last step in leaving behind her identity as Hermione Granger.
When she had purchased the identity theft potion, Hermione had started to research ways to take on somebody else's life with minimal fuss and suspicion. Her final conclusion was that she would have to stake out hospitals for dying women in her age class, this ensured that any personality change would be chalked up as consequence of the 'memory loss' the person would develop after waking up.
And so Hermione had started to split her time between the hospital, the school and the Japanese equivalent of a tavern, a tea house to immerse herself into the language that had significant differences to the modern Japanese she had in her head.
At the end of her second week in the Elementals Hermione happened to be in the lobby when two men carried the body of a young unconscious woman in, the prognosis of the doctors was instantly grim and Hermione couldn't help but think sardonically that Fate was finally cutting her some slack after having screwed her over this much.
The name of the person she would assume was Yamaguchi Hisana. The young woman was the only survivor of a small town in the mountains of Bird Country and was now dying on her fatal injuries. The curly haired witch snorted inwardly while she listened to the gossiping nurses in the break room, you had to just love the sensationalism of humans.
Having made up her mind about her new identity the only daughter of two dentists invaded the woman's mind, this probe also confirmed what the doctors had thought, there was no self awareness present, only Hisana's memories were left. While Hermione normally detested the mind arts for the harm they had caused during the war, they came in handy in this situation. The curly brunette copied the memories of the unconscious Hisana during a short night visit. After finishing with collecting the memories, the witch also extracted a blood and hair sample for the potion.
Back at her temporary hideout Hermione went through the memories of the female she would take over. Yamaguchi Hisana was nineteen years old and the daughter of a relatively well off merchant. She had been spoilt rotten in her life, had live-in tutors and everything that she could wish for. Before the earth quake that had destroyed her home village had hit, her father had been in progress of negotiating her marriage with the son of the black smith, the second richest man in their little town. Hisana's thoughts concerning her upcoming marriage had been mixed but she had never even played with the thought of disobeying her father. The black haired girl in a woman's body was surprisingly well educated for her social status, she could play the ukulele and the pan flute and was also instructed in the politics of the Elemental nations, primarily in that of Bird and Earth country. Thinking over the standard education that people seemed to receive in the pocket dimension Hisana's education was closer to that of a minor princess or samurai daughter than that of a merchant's daughter, no matter how wealthy he was. Content with the back story of her new identity, Hermione planted the memories of Hisana's life inside herself but kept them separate for the time being.
From then on it was easy to put the civilian doctors and nurses of the small hospital under a time delayed memory charm and a separate compulsion that would end the moment Hisana died. The compulsion on the hospital room arranged that although the medical personnel recognized the dying of the woman and gave her suitable medication to make her comfortable, they would write down notations of her slow recovery in her file. This would solidify her identity should anybody dig into her past for whatever reason.
It took the original Hisana nearly two weeks to die. In that time Hermione worked herself through the memories inside her head and started to enhance those that she wanted to keep as well as fitted them in alongside her own memories.
During that process she subtly started to change her mind and character.