Hana's gentle touch to her hair was soothing enough that Hermione had no qualms just lying with her head in the child's lap, watching the shadows of the trees against the paneled walls of the compound's smallest tatami room. Waiting for word on what her trial would be, she simply enjoyed the sounds the cicada outdoors, doing her best to relax.

It was a shock, then, when that petting suddenly stopped, her head falling from the few inches off the ground it had been, onto what felt to be glass. The surroundings were now inky black, leaving her unable to see the hair that had fallen over her face, much less anything more distant.

Her hands felt the floor to lift herself up, finding it smooth and cold to the touch. Though she managed to get to her feet and begin looking about hoping for some sign of what was going on, there was nothing to see or, as she began to move with hands outstretched, was there anything to feel. The floor against her bare feet remained the same, and it was some minutes before there was any change in her surroundings.

The sudden, paranoid urge to look behind her was overwhelming – while she fought it as best she could, Hermione eventually gave in and glanced back. There, far in the distance, were tiny pinpricks of red light. Nothing bright, not like a light, the dots were more of a glow. Her breath caught, her hand moved to her throat. The sight, for some reason, made her heart begin to race, and the adrenaline that had begun slowly coursing through her shot to higher levels.

Fear. As she realized the dots were moving at a steady pace towards her, her mind began to race. Sudden realization struck as she realized they were set apart like...

"Eyes..." She whispered, her voice sounding muffled in the darkness. Panic rushed forward in waves – if those were eyes, and she could see them, they must not be far away. Or if they were, they were of some massive beast... "No...No..."

She could not have said what it was that frightened her so much – it was something like the power of a dementor, except it did not cause paralyzing fear. No, this was much, much worse, she realized suddenly, as she turned to flee. This was something that left your heart racing, your mind screaming, as you ran with no care for where it might take you.

There was no desire to look back, even as her feet pounded on the surface before her. She didn't even care if she ran into a wall, hands kept at hip height to control her running form – that, in itself, sent a rush of hysterical amusement through her mind. To think she was so worried about form when her life was at risk!

It was closer. She knew, she could feel it, and she was fighting not to scream in terror. Perhaps it was this struggle that failed her, as she stumbled and fell to the ground.

"No. Nooo..." She moaned, struggling to crawl forward, before finally turning her head to see how close it was. The eyes were no larger than those of a human at this point, but from the rush of air as they came closer, she knew that was all the larger they would ever get. A scream finally escaped her lips as she scrabbled backwards, kicking out – that movement threw her onto her back, and to her shock, she felt herself slipping through the floor as though it were water.

Only the instinctive twist of her body to face what she was moving towards allowed her to adjust for what she witnessed. There was suddenly light, and she found herself dropping – as one does in bed when one is almost asleep – a mere few inches to land on one knee, the other brought up with her forearm of the opposing arm across it.

What is going on... She wondered, taking a breath and forcing her gaze off of the lush grass, slowly upwards. There, before her, stood a group of kami. The same feeling she had felt in the emperor's presence radiated from them, male and female alike. Being before one was a struggle – with five, she was struggling to breathe normally. Three female, two male, all dressed in clothing from various eras of Japanese history. It was a long moment of silence before the center female gave a slow nod, and stepped forward and to the left.

Where she had been stood a girl of an age to Hermione, a girl that she could not help but feel she knew very, very well.

"Hello..." The voice was soft, and even more familiar – as the girl began to move, Hermione was struck with a horrible sense of realization.

Oh, it was not exact – after all, the girl was Japanese. Smaller, more slight of build, as well. Nevertheless, Hermione knew exactly who this strange girl was.

"You're me." She managed. The girl gestured for her to stand, and as she obeyed, she found herself shaking her head in confusion. Yes, if Hermione were Japanese, this would be how she looked. A small smile, reaching towards the girl – her hand left extended, palm up. "I never thought I would meet myself. Hello."

This caused no amount of surprise to the kami that stood behind the girl, looking to each other as though unsure of what to do from here.

"Yes. My – our – name is – or would have been – Mitsuko." When the smaller hand fell into her own, a warmth flooded through her, and her palm began to tingle slightly. "I – we – were stillborn."

"What? But then how?" Hermione turned her questions towards the kami, the woman who seemed to be the lead shifting slightly. It was the man on the right, however, that actually answered.

"For reasons best left unknown to you at this time – you will learn them one day, I assure you – it would have been unsafe for you to have been born to that body. At the same moment your unborn heart stopped beating – some hours before you were born, mere minutes after the birth of one of your sisters – a heart that had stopped moments before began to beat again, half a world away." As he fell quiet, looking to the woman at the end of the line, someone who greatly resembled Eriko, took up the tale.

"This is not something that is normal. We expected you to react... badly." Her frown showed she was displeased by this, and greatly so. "In fact, we had planned to use this to test you. If you could survive this kind of duality, if you could face it without running... Then surely you would be worthy to be called Satoshi."

"She is Satoshi!" The man who had not yet spoken, spoke up now. His glare was leveled on the woman who seemed so displeased. "That she can accept it so easily means that it is so! And that it is right to be!"

"I'm sorry." Hermione managed, glancing from them back to... Herself? Mitsuko? Even as she was thinking it, she could hear the laughter of her counterpart in her mind. "If this is me... and I am also me... How are we both here?"

"I have always been here." Mitsuko murmured, stepping closer, brown eyes meeting grey-blue. "However, my instincts frighten you... So you pushed me away. I am the one who will kill to protect my family and friends. I am the one who will put down rabid humans with no remorse. I am the one you could not bear to be..."

"That's not true!" Hermione snapped, feeling the ache of the other as her own – well it was her own... Oh this was confusing! "I just didn't want to disappoint anyone!"

"We... We will, though." The voice was quieter, more downcast, and it drove Hermione to grasp Mitsuko's other hand with her own free one. "While you were distracted with the yasha, in that dark place, the kami were speaking to me... There are things we have to do that will disappoint people we love. We cannot keep running, you know. One day, we will have to be who we are, Hermione... We cannot avoid it forever."

"I won't!" Hermione cried, squeezing the smaller hands gently. "What are you talking about?"

"Bellatrix. Rosier. Both Lestrange brothers." The voice was quiet, but the words it spoke had her flinching with each name mentioned. These were individuals Hermione had killed in the war – though not a comprehensive list. Indeed, she was responsible for enough deaths that there could be no comprehensive list.

"We had to kill them. They would have killed us! It's not as though I did it for fun!" The protest didn't still the strange sense of shame that rushed over her when she thought of another name that did not exactly fit in that kind of group.

"Delores Umbridge." Mitsuko whispered quietly, a small, twisted little smile curving her lips. "Also in what could be considered self-defense... But there is no denying how much we enjoyed killing her... Even with Bellatrix, we both felt a sense of detachment – we were putting down a rabid animal, and it was only too bad it had to be done... But Umbridge..."

"She had to die." Hermione snarled, hands tightening on Mitsuko's. "It doesn't matter that –"

"But it does. You see, I feel no shame in enjoying her death. Not after the tortures she put us through... Not to mention our friends. And Harry!" Mitsuko was breathing heavily now, deep in remembered affront. "She hurt our brother in all but blood! We enjoyed killing her! It was relief and glee and honor that we felt when we finally ripped that lying toad's tongue out of her head with our magic, once we let it go free!"

"We could have killed her quickly." Hermione remembered, beginning to shake. "But I was so angry. How dare she... How dare she laugh? She had the nerve to laugh about all she had already done! And then she bragged about torturing Luna... Luna! A girl I knew to be a gentle, innocent child! She hasn't been the same since that day..."

"Hermione... You are the one that keeps Mitsuko a separate entity." The last woman spoke now, stepping forward. Hermione had previously thought the center woman to be the leader, but this woman – dressed in Heian-era court kimono, countless layers curtailing her every movement – with eyes that Hermione recognized as unseeing had a power that made the first woman's seem miniscule. "Each of us here before you guide a separate class of the Satoshi clan... Mitsuko was meant to be one of mine..."

Hermione's brows furrowed in puzzlement, asking the question that she could not seem to voice.

"If you can let go of this strange guilt you hold, you may live to learn about us." The kami murmured, continuing, ever so slowly, to glide towards the two girls. "If you are to survive this test, you must go beyond accepting that Mitsuko is you. You must be Mitsuko... There can be no more separation, it would have killed you eventually regardless. You cannot deny who you are and who you must be, child..."

Hermione turned her gaze away to find Mitsuko looking up at her. Both pairs of eyes were filling with tears, as the sense of disconnect echoed between two parts of the same soul. It was becoming unbearable as it grew, driving Hermione to pull the smaller form into her arms, crushing it tight against her.

"My name is Hermione Jane Granger." She whispered first, gasping at the pain that spiked through her as she spoke those words. "My name is Mitsuko Satoshi." The pain grew still stronger, leaving the two girls sobbing outright. "Our name isn't something we can choose between..."

"It is not the name." The woman whispered, her arms slowly coming to wrap around both girls, the sleeves hiding them almost entirely. "Who are you, little girl...?"

"I'm me." It was a childishly pitched dual voice that spoke, and a pair of mismatched eyes that turned far upwards to the blind woman. "But who is that?"

"A person can have two names, my darling child..." She gathered the little girl close, chuckling softly. "But perhaps it would be better that only I know your true name... Hermione Satoshi will serve you well in the world... Hermione Granger will not legally change for years... But Mitsuko Satoshi, that is a name only I shall whisper..."

"My sisters?" The little girl questioned, grasping onto the cloth that held her close, her eyes, if it were possible, becoming still larger. "Shall they know?"

"If they will swear on their lives and their magic never to share it, then you may tell them. It is, after all, one of a set of names, is it not?" A smile was in her voice, and as her lips pressed onto the small forehead in front of her, the child grew and settled into a more familiar shape. "Now, my little Mitsuko... My Hermione. How do you feel?"

"Better." The note of surprise was obvious, a sigh of relief as the woman pulled away, leaving only hands upon her shoulders. "But... Who are you?"

"I am the one of the Satoshi family kami," she murmured, "called upon to test your right to be a Satoshi."

"But –"

"Now, child." The first woman to speak was near them, a laugh in her eyes and her voice even as the other woman moved her hands away. "That is something you must learn as a child of the clan. You have passed. Off with you – they're waiting."

Hermione gasped slightly, a tug at her solar plexus the only warning, before she was falling backwards. As her back thumped into a tatami-covered dais, she felt the breath leave her body in a rush. Gasping, it was only when air refilled her lungs that the dull roar of sound around her became a recognizable mass of shocked voices. One, however, stood out over them all.

"Hermione!" Akiko's cry was followed by the appearance of Eriko's face into Hermione's wavering view.

"You could have warned me." Hermione gasped, glaring at the girl overhead. This had the face above relaxing – while lips showed no sign, the eyes lit up in a relieved smile. "I am only glad to have survived. How long before you stop giving me near-death experiences, Eriko?"

"You will get used to it. After all, it is part of being Satoshi."

That, more than anything else, assured her that what she had just experienced was real. Sighing, Hermione let her eyes close.

"I don't think I can move."

"You will need a great deal of rest." Mamoru's voice was quiet, though Hermione was certain it was relief she heard within. "As will Akiko. You both performed a ritual beyond your years."

Unable to even muster enough energy to question his statement, Hermione just nodded, and let herself drop into sleep.

This family was insane.

Author's Note:

It's been a while, hasn't it? I apologize. But I hope these chapters are enough to satiate you for at least a few hours (I'll be writing more as soon as I gather the energy from this bout. Perhaps as soon as tomorrow night will see more posting!) because my brain is leaking out of my ears. I had to smack it around to find the place I put the plotline for this story. Anyway, enjoy, leave comments if you wish, and I'll do my best to churn out another chapter by tomorrow.