The plan was to spend part of April in Australia and finish the month in Indonesia, but Australia was a much bigger and vaster country than Newt had anticipated. Especially because they stopped every two steps to investigate any little thing or trace that caught their attention. More than once, he saw Tina roll her eyes with exasperation filled with affection before conjuring a hammock and lying down to wait with a sigh. Harika, after taking the necessary photographs, joined her with her books on enchantments and defence.
"We'll try to see Indonesia after we finish our stop in Japan," Newt sighed as they packed up to leave Australia. "I have a commitment in Tokyo that I can't skip."
The others didn't mind visiting Indonesia later, so no one complained. The stay in Japan was supposed to last three weeks before they departed for Russia. What excited her the most was realizing that she had the first six days free while Newt, Alfred, and Lenora handled a magical creatures matter with the Japanese Ministry. Tina, along with Rolf and Luna, would also be very busy that week accompanying Newt to give lectures at Osaka's magical university, so they practically left her alone.
She found herself wandering through the most famous places of the Muggle world, photographing everything with her trusty camera. She stopped to try Japan's delicious food, which was much richer and more varied than the English food she was used to, and she also bought gifts. The most interesting thing was the difference between London, where she had lived most of her life, and Tokyo. Despite being a metropolis, Tokyo had something special… something ancient. Maybe it was the deeply rooted traditions of its people, or perhaps the old buildings that stood among the tall, modern ones that swayed from time to time with Japan's frequent earthquakes. She didn't know what it was, but something about it took her breath away.
"Nobody gives you a second glance while you go about your life here," Luna shrugged when she mentioned her observations in amazement.
"They didn't say anything to me in Canada either."
"Because they didn't know you. Here, some might know who you are, and yet they won't bother you."
She realized Luna was right. Reflecting on it that night, she understood that the difference between her homeland and Japan was respect. In the United Kingdom, she had often been treated like an object—by the press or even the Ministry. Here… things couldn't be more different. She felt at home, like in Scotland, but the difference was that she hadn't had to run away from people to be respected, to be left alone. She felt exasperation and a flicker of anger realizing that her own people had driven her to live in the middle of nowhere just to be able to breathe. She had even felt the need to hide her address because otherwise, she knew they would have tried to enter her house or take pictures of her through the windows while she showered or ate. It was so… pathetic. That was it. The United Kingdom was pathetic compared to so many other countries, and the funniest part was that her fellow countrymen thought it was the other way around. And to think they believed they were superior when other cultures excelled in so many things…
"I'm going to Tokyo's magical alley," she told her friend. "Do you need anything?"
"No, thanks, Hari. Though, if I were you, I'd explore the alley thoroughly. I'm sure you'll find something interesting that doesn't exist back home…"
Harika raised an eyebrow, watching Luna's dancing back as she walked away without another word. Luna had never given her bad advice, so she decided to follow it.
Tokyo's magical alley was hidden behind a little-frequented temple. To enter, one had to ring a bell that Muggles couldn't see, and then the alley's entrance appeared beneath a red torii gate. It was as magnificent as the rest of Tokyo. There were people from all over, even humanoid creatures she had never seen before. Japan, despite being strict, was also tolerant of magical beings—or at least, magical Japan was.
Just by seeing how large the alley was, branching into two other alleys, she knew she would need a couple of days to visit each store. Still, she bought new potion ingredients, new seeds and plants, a much more modern and complete telescope that promised to let her see the sun itself, rolls of fabric she might use someday and couldn't resist buying, modern Muggle-style clothing with all sorts of protections and enchantments, and even five kimonos that cost her a fortune but were the most majestic pieces of craftsmanship she had ever seen.
What surprised her the most were the cosmetics store, which was as big as George's shop in England, and a sort of wand shop that didn't sell wands.
"Welcome to Suzuki Artifacts," the shop attendant said with a bow. She was dressed in a professional dark yukata, her hair impeccably styled as if she were in a fashion show. "My name is Akane Suzuki. How may I help you?"
"What do you sell here?" she asked, utterly confused as the shop looked like a jewellery store, yet the window display read 'artifacts.'
"Our business specializes in magical artifacts. You use a wand, correct?"
"Yes."
"In Japan, as in other Asian countries, centuries ago, it was frowned upon for women to wield a wand. Some believed that such an object—some even considering it to have phallic connotations—tainted noblewomen, which was seen as a stain on their family's honour. A mere excuse, of course, to control women, who were just as powerful as men," Akane explained. Harika felt a pang of resentment hammering in her head at the thought of a man forbidding a woman to use magic for such a stupid reason. Akane seemed to notice her indignation because she smiled. "Of course, the women of old weren't going to let men forbid them from using magic, but it was never customary in Japanese society for a woman to openly rebel against her family or husband."
"And what happened?"
"As you might guess, women had certain… tricks to continue using magic without men realizing. It is believed that Rika Ootori created the first artifact—a device capable of channelling magic, essentially equivalent to a wand." Harika glanced at all the artifacts on display and noticed that most were objects typically worn by women, such as rings, bracelets, hairpins, or even fans. "As you can see, jewellery was common and didn't attract much attention. Rika noticed this and crafted a pair of rings—one for herself and one as a wedding gift for her firstborn daughter, which are now displayed in the Women's Museum in Himeji."
"Wow… Now that's a wedding gift."
"It was both a gift and a lifeline. Her daughter's husband… was not a good man."
Harika couldn't help but frown as she realized why that woman from so long ago had created something out of nothing for her daughter. A mother's love was the most incredible thing in the world. And to think that now many people, both men and women, could use magic with a ring when that woman had only created something like this to protect her daughter from an abusive marriage…
"And how do they work?"
"First, we conduct a compatibility study and then use blood magic to link the artifact to the buyer. This way, no one else can use it, so stealing it would be useless."
"I think I'll take more than one, if possible. You never know when you'll need a backup."
"Of course. What type of jewellery or object do you prefer?"
"I'd like something I always have on me, like a ring. I wouldn't want to be searching for a fan in a moment of need."
"I see. Good thinking. In that case, you might also be interested in a bracelet or a bangle."
She left Suzuki Artifacts a couple of hours later. Unlike a wand, which cost an average of seven Galleons, each piece of jewellery cost ten times more. Still, paying nearly 100 Galleons per piece seemed like a good investment, and it was pocket change to her. She bought a couple of rings, a bangle, and a bracelet. She looked at the blue sapphire and aquamarine ring with tiny diamonds set in a thin white gold band on her right index finger and smiled like a villain with a new toy.
The rest of the day was spent taking more walks through the alley, buying a little bit of everything. She spent so much money that Hermione—and Ron—would have had a heart attack. She now had so many clothes that her wardrobe had transformed into a 16-square-meter room where she barely had space for all her robes, dresses, sweaters, pants, skirts, kimonos, oversized shoes, heels, sneakers, and more. Not to mention the cabinet she had to buy for her multiple creams, lotions, shampoos, gels, bath salts and bombs, essential oils, enchanted combs and scissors, perfumes, exfoliants, etc. Yes, thanks to Andromeda and Fleur, she had developed a taste for certain luxuries that she no longer considered leaving behind.
She loved the confidence her new clothes and self-care routine gave her. During her time at Hogwarts, her routine had been to wash her hair with Muggle shampoo, wear charity clothes or her cousin's old clothes from when he was much smaller and less bulky, and tie her hair in a braid or ponytail so it wouldn't get in her eyes. She couldn't believe how little she had taken care of herself. But, of course, if no one had taught her how to, how could she have known? Maybe she should have looked up hygiene or beautification spells, but Aunt Petunia had crushed her self-esteem so much that she had never even considered it.
She stopped at a half-empty Japanese café on the Muggle side. She smiled as she ate her pastry and drank one of the most popular Japanese teas. She took a couple of pictures through the window, watching people pass by in varying states of hurry, feeling that familiar excitement that always flooded her whenever she wanted to go exploring. She paid her bill and stepped out into the street with her camera hanging around her neck and held in her hands. She wasn't about to miss a good photo that afternoon.
Tokyo was so vast that she walked and walked and walked, and it seemed endless. The alley wasn't in the city centre, so her walk took her to the outskirts, where skyscrapers were mere shadows in the distance and residential houses dominated the scenery. She crossed a bridge over the river, pausing for a while to capture the sunlight glistening on the water and a couple of young cats playing on the riverbank's green grass. On the other side of the bridge, she took photos of several abandoned houses that pleasantly surprised her with how well-preserved they were. She continued down the street, taking more pictures of another abandoned house when she noticed something. It seemed like the entire street was deserted. It was at that precise moment that she realized there was no one around, even though the houses were in good condition—empty, but well-kept—and the streets were clean. She looked around with growing curiosity.
"Why is there no one here?" she wondered. "Could this be a neighbourhood abandoned in favour of central Tokyo?"
Most of the houses were covered in vegetation, so she assumed it had been a long time since anyone had lived there. The deeper she ventured into the neighbourhood, the stranger it all seemed.
"A temple?" she asked aloud to herself, spotting a small shrine—one of many—at the top of a flight of stairs.
It was hidden at the end of a narrow alley between two apartment buildings of only three or four floors. She lifted her camera, taking another photograph of the section of the temple, surrounded by trees except for the front, which she could see between the empty buildings. Looking through her lens, she thought she saw a golden light, like sparks jumping from a switch. She raised her head to look with her own eyes, but there was nothing. Something about it gave her a bad feeling, considering the empty, abandoned neighbourhood, so she was about to turn around and leave when she heard it.
She spun around abruptly, looking back at the tiny brown temple with worn-out red torii gates. She could have sworn she had just heard the sound of a bell—so faint that she almost thought she had imagined it—coming from the temple. Then she heard it again: the high-pitched chime of a small bell, carried to her ears by the breeze. She hesitated several times, knowing this could be dangerous, but her curiosity was greater than her desire to turn around and run. She had never been able to leave a mystery unsolved, and this time would be no different.
She walked toward the temple, her wand hidden in her sleeve, but nothing happened. She dodged a few broken stones on the stairs while keeping her eyes fixed on the temple as it got closer. As soon as she stood in front of the door, she realized it was half-open, as if someone had abandoned it in a hurry. She opened the door with magic, observing the dark interior from the outside. She sent a couple of Lumos spells inside to see what was in there without exposing herself, but there was nothing—no one, nothing unusual. Just a short hallway leading to an empty room with what seemed to be wallpapered walls.
She used a few more spells to check for any danger before stepping inside. She saw a bell hanging above her head and another hallway to the left, but first, she wanted to look at the room in front of her. The floor wasn't tatami but wood, and the planks creaked loudly under her feet. She avoided stepping on broken boards to prevent injury, but curiously, the temple was in good condition. Especially considering that the entire neighbourhood seemed to have been abandoned for decades. She walked to the centre of the room, noticing how some wooden planks wobbled beneath her feet, until she stopped in front of a medium-sized painting that caught her attention. She took a picture before examining it with her own eyes.
It was a horizontal painting seemingly divided into two scenes, oddly connected by what looked like a stone well in the middle of a grassy field. On the left side of the painting, where the sun was setting, there was a meadow of yellow flowers with a deer grazing at the foot of some trees and a person floating backward away from the well and the rest of the painting, arms raised and stretched as if about to do a somersault in the air. On the other side of the well, where it appeared to be full daylight, there was another flower meadow—this time violet—more trees, though without the deer, and the same person wearing the same clothes, but now depicted diving headfirst into the ground, arms extended in front of them like a swimmer.
She observed it for a long time, intrigued as to why something so strange would be hung in a sacred place. Then she noticed that the wall behind the painting had scuff marks. She traced them with her finger to the frame. Could there be something behind it? Just as she was about to move the painting, she barely touched the frame before it tilted sharply, hanging askew on the wall. She realized where the scuff marks had come from when she heard the scraping of the frame against the wall. Surprised, she turned the painting over, just as countless people seemed to have done before, until it was completely flipped. The well was now at the top, and the scenes had switched places—now sunset was on the right, and morning was on the left.
The strangest thing about all of this was that viewed this way, it looked as if the person on the left was diving into the well and emerging from the other side again. A wild idea came to her, but her intuition told her to try it. She gripped the frame firmly and gave it a push. She expected it to fall to the ground instantly, but the frame spun several times on the screw that held it to the wall. The picture, now that it was in motion, made even more sense. The person was—
Ding!
Harika spun around, heart pounding, as she heard the bell behind her. Wand in hand, she checked that she was still alone, but now she wasn't enjoying this anymore. Then, while taking a deeper look around, she realized that the walls weren't wallpapered, as she had thought, but covered in thousands of Japanese characters. Kanji. They seemed to be prayers for protection and concealment. Goosebumps rose on her skin, and she decided to leave immediately. She walked quickly, determined to get out of there, when the wood beneath her feet groaned loudly and collapsed beneath her.
She let out a terrified scream as she fell through a hole in the floor, losing her wand as she instinctively opened her hands to stop her fall. She tried to grab onto the stone as the hole beneath her feet seemed endless, but she couldn't. The only thing that worked was using her feet to slow her fall. It was working! What she hadn't accounted for was the camera that had been hanging around her neck, floating above her head. She looked up just as she was slowing down, only to see the camera plummeting toward her face at full speed, hitting her forehead with a solid smack that knocked her out. She felt her body go limp as she lost consciousness...
...When she came to, it was night-time, and she had a splitting migraine. She stayed on the ground, lying there, catching her breath to think. She touched her body, realizing she was mostly fine, and then struggled to pull out her prepared medical potions kit. One vial later, and the migraine was gone. As soon as she could think more clearly, she noticed the pain from her injuries: the burning in her palms from trying to grasp the stone, the throbbing in her forehead, and the sharp pain in a couple of fingers on both her hands and feet. When she looked at her right hand, she saw she was missing a fingernail and had to fight back a gag.
She averted her gaze while thinking of the necessary healing spell. Her hand trembled when she looked back to aim her wand. That was when she realized she didn't have it. She searched frantically, feeling around the ground in desperation until she remembered the magic ring on her finger.
"Accio wand."
Her wand returned to her after a couple of tries, during which she feared she had lost or broken it in the fall. As soon as she had it in hand, she healed her missing nail and the broken toe. She applied a disinfectant potion to her palms, watching as smoke rose from her wounds when the violet liquid touched her raw skin. After that, she used essence of dittany to help her skin grow back. She repeated the process on a few scratches on her head, feeling a sharp sting as the wound on her forehead closed up. Exhausted but fully healed, she stood up and used her wand to clean the blood, dirt, and grass stuck to her clothes. Fortunately, her enchanted robes remained spotless thanks to their protective charms.
She touched the leather bag that always hung at her hip, sighing in relief, and repaired the camera when she saw it was covered in scratches and dust. She tucked it into her bag while looking around, completely out of place in her luxurious-looking outfit in the middle of the forest.
"Where the hell am I?"
No one answered, of course, but saying it out loud made her feel better. At least, she told herself, she was safe and had all her belongings. With her wand in hand, she tried to find the most direct route to Tokyo, but her wand kept spinning aimlessly in her palm. She froze as she realized what that meant: either Tokyo no longer existed, or she was in a place where Tokyo had never existed. She tried London and Paris— nothing. She was definitely not in Kansas anymore.
A distant wolf howl made her realize she couldn't just stand there like an idiot in the middle of nowhere at night. She cast a few spells to make sure she was alone— and she was— before transforming into her harpy eagle form. She soared above the trees surrounding her, trying to get her bearings, but all she could see was forest upon forest. There wasn't even a distant light to guide her to a city or village. The only things in sight were a vast forest, a few mountains, and a stream.
She looked up at the sky and only sighed in relief when she saw the familiar constellations and stars. She didn't know where she was, but somehow, she was still on Earth. A small spark of joy lit up inside her as she realized her studies were paying off— if she hadn't reviewed astronomy, she wouldn't have known that, and she would have felt even more lost.
She searched for a hidden, elevated spot to place her new suitcase. She could use her tent, but that would attract more attention and require more space. After setting up a few subtle barriers, she entered her mobile home. Exhausted, the only things she could manage were a shower, dinner, and going straight to bed. Maybe things would be clearer in the daylight…
...
Unfortunately, they weren't clear at all. She had spent the morning flying upriver in search of a city, but no matter how far she flew, there was nothing. She ate a meal, thanking the heavens for having stocked her pantry weeks ago, and meditated.
The last thing she remembered was falling through a circular hole which, thanks to her preserved memories through Legilimency, she now recognized as a well. Inevitably, she recalled the painting she had been studying. Could it be that rolling the painting had activated some sort of mechanism or portal? The bell had rung right after. Coincidence? Then again… wasn't it a bell that had first caught her attention at the temple? Maybe she was overcomplicating things.
The fact remained that she didn't seem to be in her… dimension, so to speak, but she was still on the same planet. Which meant that somewhere, there was a portal that could take her back home.
"The place where I fell!" she exclaimed, quickly gathering her things.
She transformed into an eagle again, but everything seemed the same. Trees and more trees. Fortunately, the stream could guide her downstream, back to the place where she had appeared. It took her hours to reach the area where she believed she had first arrived, and then more hours on foot, searching the ground for bloodstains or disturbed earth from her weight. Magic wasn't much use if she didn't have a target to look for, so she had to do it the old-fashioned way. She searched for anything that could resemble a well, a door, an arch… anything! But there was nothing. Nothing!
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" she screamed in frustration, unleashing her fury upon the world. "WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME?! FUUUUUCK!"
Panting, she rested her hands on her knees, feeling better after a good scream. She spent a couple of minutes breathing, trying to clear her mind and think of nothing, when she felt eyes on the back of her neck. She froze, pretending she hadn't noticed anything, thinking about what to do. Her wand slipped discreetly into her hand at the exact moment she turned, sending an explosive spell behind her back. She saw a shadow darting through the trees at a speed that made her dizzy. She heard breath against her back and turned again, wand in hand, when— for the second time in less than a day— she lost consciousness.
She woke up a while later, this time without a headache, and immediately knew she was slung over someone's shoulder, judging by her body bent over something hard but warm and moving. She noticed her wand was missing from its holster, though she wouldn't have been able to use it anyway, considering her hands were tied up and wrapped in rope from her wrists to her fingertips. Luckily for her, she still had her invisible ring.
"Stupefy!"
The spell shot out. Her hand was close to her captor's body, so they didn't see it coming. They tumbled to the ground, crashing against a tree and then onto the dirt. She heard a snap and then pain. It wasn't the first time she had felt that kind of pain, so she knew she had broken a bone from the impact against the wood at such speed. She bit her tongue to keep from screaming and alerting anyone else.
She vanished the bindings on her hands and legs and examined herself. The moment she tried moving her right arm, she saw stars and knew she had at least broken her humerus. She couldn't hold back the tears of pain as she rummaged through her bag for her medical potions kit. Again. With trembling hands, she took the Skelegro.
If she could have aimed at her own arm with her right hand, she would have tried using Brackium Emendo, but considering she couldn't move the limb without feeling a sharp jolt of pain, she decided it was better not to risk it. The potion took effect almost instantly. A painful tingling spread through her bone, forcing her to bite down on the leather strap of her bag to keep from screaming. Even so, within a few minutes, the pain decreased exponentially until it became bearable. It still hurt, but not enough to make her scream.
Once she managed to stop focusing on her arm, she wiped her tears with her sleeve and looked at the man she had knocked unconscious. He had injuries from the fall, like she did, but he seemed more resilient than a witch displaced between dimensions. He was tall, muscular, dressed in what appeared to be a military uniform, judging by the weapons and the greyish vest. He had a kind of silver band on his forehead with four diagonal bar-like markings, two above and two below. She tied him up with magic after stripping him of his clothes. Seeing nothing unusual on his body, she figured he must have stored her wand in his backpack— if he hadn't thrown it away.
"Accio wand."
With a sigh of relief, her wand shot out of the backpack, just as she had suspected. It was still intact, so she tucked it into the holster on her right forearm as best as she could, using her non-dominant hand. She grabbed the backpack by its base, dumping everything inside onto the forest floor. She saw some triangular silver knives, bandages, a small medical kit, ropes, wires, a few needles, a small canteen, a roll of what looked like parchment, a quill and ink, some food wrapped in cloth, and what appeared to be some kind of brown pills.
She stood up, looking around, trying to figure out where she was, but she was still just as lost. Still, she thought she could hear the sound of water nearby, so maybe they had followed the river downstream. Or upstream. She wasn't sure yet. Then, she realized her stroke of luck. Even though they had tried to kidnap her, she now had someone she could interrogate.
This man, however, had some sort of power because he had been able to move at an incredible speed through the trees, too fast for her to track with her eyes. She needed to prepare to interrogate him. She couldn't afford another mistake. The only reason he hadn't taken her ring or her bag was that they were charmed against Muggles— which meant that this man was a Muggle who, somehow, possessed powers.
This adventure was getting more and more interesting.