A Bond of Eternity - Genshin Impact

Chapter 20: A Gleaming Grey Realm

- Realm of Kazemoya, a while later... -

(Katsuo) felt like he was floating. Well, more than he usually does when in his true form anyways. He feels like he is suspended in some form of the void and he is sober enough to realize that just as he regained consciousness. When he opened his eyes, however, he found himself to be, in fact, not floating at all.

Instead, he is kneeling on some... grassy ground. He felt stronger, stronger than before even, as if he was being charged or something... Is this Kazemoya empowering him? The ancient blade did grant him powers, or rather, enhancement to his powers before, but nothing like this — not on this level.

It was as if he was in a place exclusively meant for the enenra people.

Strange is an understatement. For the first time in a long time, he's put into a situation where he has little understanding of. Of course, he won't figure anything out if he simply stays where he is and so he stands up, observing his surroundings. The first thing that struck him was the familiarity of the place... It looks like he is on Narukami Island and right away, he sees even stranger things; there are yōkai... and they are living with humans? No, they're coexisting!

That can't be. Most of the yōkai had been purged from Inazuma by the time of the Cataclysm as they were corrupted by the Abyss. Only the most benevolent and dutiful of the yōkai were spared and that included the enenra and the kitsune, and some scant number of oni as well. However, that doesn't seem to be the case here and when (Katsuo) stood on the edge of the cliff overlooking Inazuma City, things only got stranger; the yōkai, of all different forms and sentience, were there mingling with the humans as comrades. More than that, the colors of the city... It wasn't the signature purple of the Raiden Shogun.

It was grey.

And a lavish shade at that.

Even the mitsudomoe representing Inazuma and the Electro element was replaced by a symbol depicting a cloud or a mist.

(Katsuo) has a faint idea of what is going on but true to his shrewd thinking and impartiality, he doesn't make any hasty conclusions yet. Perhaps he'll find answers in the transformed city and so, he morphed into his true form, which he also found out to be flawlessly easy, and descended towards the outskirts of the city. And right away, he took note of the changes around him.

But before he could continue observing, he heard a commotion occuring ahead of him. It appears to be a man— no, a particularly mischievous yōkai it seems and he is being chased by a couple of guards. Like the rest of the city, the colors the guards are wearing on their armor and clothing were predominantly grey with the occasional silver accents instead of purple. Strange... Although he figured that the human guards needed help and with a swift motion combined with the yōkai suspect's lack of awareness to his surroundings, (Katsuo) took him down with the pommel of his blade, knocking the yōkai unconscious and ending the chase.

"Almighty Shogun!" One of the guards greeted him with winded breath from the chase as he and his fellow bowed to him.

...

. . .

Almighty Shogun...?

Did they just...?

...

"Milord, we would like to apologize for the unsightly look of this. We shall take him to the police station at once!" One of the guards says to (Katsuo).

(Katsuo), for his part, is dumbfounded, perhaps for the first time in a long while. "I... O-Of course." He hesitantly replies.

The Shogun stuttering? That never happened before. Noticing this, the two guards become concerned and they both look at him. "Almighty Shogun... Are you alright?"