Chapter 3

The Transformation

Wizards and witches were strongly disencouraged from tempering with their own minds. One single mistake could lead to a fatal personality shift or a complete loss of memory but Hermione was determined to risk it. She was going to start over as Yamaguchi Hisana, a blend of the bitter British witch Hermione Granger and the spoiled original Yamaguchi Hisana of Bird Country.

But before she could start with the creation of her new personality, Hermione took the time to create a back up copy of both original memories and thought processes; so that she could adjust her personality in whatever way she wished should she ever need it.
In the end Hermione's contribution to the new personality was her knowledge of potions, the body, first aid, runes, what wizards had found out about the Elemental countries, the knowledge about tactics used in the wizarding war as well as how to deal with the more shady characters of the underworld from her life as Hermione Granger. From Hisana the new personality received her education in manners, politics and instruments as well as the ability to ride horses of the Yamaguchi daughter. Hisana's ability to manipulate people around her to do her biding was also added; the British witch had had a hard time with that in her previous life, she had been too no nonsense for that.
Concerning their memories Hermione decided to lock most of her original memories into the back of her head and put the happier ones of Hisana to the forefront, so while she was aware of her memories as Hermione, they had a lessened impact on her. With Hisana's childhood memories also came the deep understanding of the Bird Country culture, this came quite in handy because the knowledge about a culture you hadn't grown up in normally took a life time to understand.
This enhancing and suppressing of memories and abilities changed the core personality of the still curly haired witch.

To put it simple she became a lady with a hidden darker personality that could deal with the seedier aspects of life.

She had manners, knowledge and a razor sharp intellect; furthermore Hisana was also shrewd enough to manipulate a situation to her advantage while not being too jaded. The tampering took Hermione less than a day to complete, while the effects on her mind had her out of commission for nearly five days.
When Hisana awoke in her little secret hideout in the attic of the hospital after being unconscious for so long she was nearly too weak to move and it took her a day and two nutritional potions to strengthen her body for the final change, the physical change.
For that Hisana heated up the identity theft potion that she had bought on the black market of Korea, it had cost her nearly one fourth of the Potter wealth. She poured the preserved blood and the hair sample into it and when it had reached a drinkable temperature Hermione quickly choked it down.

On the morning of the ninth day after the original Hisana's had been committed to the Mountain hospital her double came to life.

Hisana 0.2 as the witch called herself sarcastically was in agony. She had had a vague idea what to expect thanks to the polyjuice potion in her second year but this couldn't compare, the pain was unbelievable, she was on the brink of insanity when it finally stopped and she was able to catch her breath. It took her the next three days to recover enough to use magic again and sneak into the hospital rooms bellow her. She barely made it in time for Hisana to die; thankfully she had the forethought of hitting the woman with a monitor charm that warned her when she was on the brink of death.

Hisana 0.2 changed the dead body of the woman whose identity she had taken on into a stone and threw it out of the window into the garden. The natural chakra around them would hold the transfiguration for up to three weeks without the witch having to do anything; which should be enough to be released and to find a proper burial side for the Original.

Establishing one's self

One of the many disadvantages of being the only heiress to a merchant fortune was the greed of others.
The moment it became clear that she was recovering, a message was sent out to the nearest business partner of Hisana's father as well as messages to other business partners. Thankfully for the new Elemental Country resident the nearest located business partner was an elderly man with a soft spot for females. Hisana could remember that her father had brought her along a few times while she was a child and later in her teen years. Yamaguchi Hisei had approved of the honorable merchant that he had concluded business with and had not been afraid to leave his only child in said man's care for up to two weeks.
As soon as she was able to be moved Tesuo-dono had her bundled up in a carriage and transported to his residence. He was also the one who had sorted out the paperwork concerning her father's will along with the marriage proposals that came in masses after the knowledge of her father's death circulated in their social circles.
One of the conditions Hisana's overly cautious father had insisted on was that she had to prove her heritage via blood test in the capital. The young woman was now more than glad that the identity potion changed the makeup completely down to the last cell.
Tesuo-dono had accompanied her to the capital after assisting her with the funeral procedures and commissioning a shrine on a cliff overlooking the area were once the destroyed village stood. The villagers of the town she had been treated in were very thankful for that because according to their/HER religion something had to be done to appease the souls of the killed people that hadn't received a proper burial to prevent them from haunting the place.
After fulfilling all the conditions of her father's will Tesuo-dono asked Hisana what she wanted to do now that her father and fiancé were dead, did she wish for another betrothal.

Having learned more about the kind older man and also his nephew, who would take over the family after Tesuo-dono's death, Hisana sold the goods and trading routes in her possession to them, while keeping only enough percentages in the business so that she could life a comfortable life on that alone. Furthermore he declined Tesuo-dono's offer of arranging a marriage for her, she explained this to him that she needed time to heal before she could even think about marrying anybody. The old gentleman hadn't been happy about this but had acquiesced to her wishes.

Freedom and Grief

Five months after arriving in Tesuo-dono's household Hisana started her journey through the Elemental Countries. While the old merchant didn't want to see her leave he couldn't stop her because she was a legal adult with enough means to life on her own. Hisana left with a promise of frequent visits and letters to the family.

The black haired woman arrived after nearly a week of travelling in a caravan back in the capital of Bird Country, Torika. The city with it's never ending streets and bustling population had attracted Hisana's attention from the moment she had moved passed the main gates for the first time.
There, relieved that she was finally free she spent nearly a month on a drinking binge with quite a lot of different bed partners. Hisana's body had still been virginal when she took the identity potion but the civilian war survivor had rectified this the moment she was out of the reach of Tesuo-dono.
During this time of excess Hisana mourned her dead loved ones both old and new and finally after nearly four years of just going through the motions she started to heal.

Hisana enjoyed her new freedom with expensive spa trips and long educational journeys through Tori no Kuni and the bordering countries, this was the kind of life she became used to rather quickly. After three months of doing nothing but living and spending the money that was in her bank accounts Hisana began to translate some of the books she had brought from the Outer world as a hobby, but the longer she wrote and translated she asked herself if she couldn't turn this into a form of income.

Back in Bird Country Hisana found herself a publicist, a portly middle aged man with a keen sense for business, she left all decisions in his hands to only concentrate on writing and enjoying her new life.

Old Passions and final Changes

During her travels Hisana picked up vast amounts of books on every topic as well as antiquities and even jewelry. It often were the second hand shops that would to sell her the hidden gems for her fast growing collections. Hisana even bought jutsu scrolls and kenjutsu instruction manuals when she was in a particular mood, everything was interesting to her and she quite enjoyed the fact of being financial secure.
As the months past by Hisana learned about the books that were considered rare, lost or a fable; she learned how to spot a forgery and slowly became known in the elite group of book collectors. In Hisana an old part of Hermione woke up, the part that had coveted written knowledge like no other and so the habit of buying books turned back into a long forgotten passion for knowledge and history. The books and jutsu scrolls were sent back to Bird Country where she rented a house for herself. This house was now overflowing with old tomes, boxes that were filled to the brim with scrolls weren't even unpacked but just left in one of the empty rooms and her antiquities were neatly wrapped and fitted between the empty space of the boxes, and the collection was still growing.

Hisana lamented the fact that she couldn't carry all the books on her person. It would have cost an immense sum and would have attracted unwanted attention from bandits and the likes. She also couldn't use her Rune belt anymore to store them there. Hermione had been wrong; chakra and magic were two far apart from each other and her Rune knowledge had become as good as useless since turning into Hisana. In the months following her entrance into the Elemental countries she had had to concentrate more and more on making it work, until she had finally given up and stored her treasurers and books in different hideaways throughout the Elemental countries. Hisana admitted that the loss of her Rune capabilities had hurt somewhat but the black haired woman accepted it as price for this new life. She hadn't felt so alive for a very long time, probably not even during her early Hogwarts years when she, Harry and Ron had explored the castle and the mysteries that had popped up every year.

Her magic using capabilities also got steadily worse until fourteen months into her new life; Hisana couldn't use even the simplest levitation charm anymore. Funnily enough Legilimency and Occlumency didn't seem to fall under this restriction at all. Quite to the contrary Hisana even had the feeling that these abilities had been strengthened since her arrival in the Elemental Countries.

While the witch Hermione had been disgusted und uncomfortable with using Legilimency because of her experience, her new personality didn't have these qualms. And after this particularly skill had saved her from falling into the hands of a slave trader even the last discomfort vanished and she started to use it more regularly. Most of the time she just kept to the surface thoughts of her vis-a-vis so that she was not overwhelmed while it gave her the ability to scan others for potential dangers.