Once Upon An Assassination Attempt || Kamisato Ayato

Chapter 17 | Journey

UNEDITED

The sea breeze was cold against my face, and I pulled the black jacket tighter around me. Not that it was cold, but it was undeniablely soft. We were on captain Beidou's ship, which Lumine had recommended when I said we needed to leave discreetly.

We were going to Liyue, and along the course of several events I had managed to convince Ayato to change his outfit.

That's right, I had convinced him to wear something other than his stupidly long sleeves. Footsteps approached me from behind, and I grew impatient waiting.

"Well?" The voice came from behind me. His tone was doubtful, as if this was something he didn't think was necessary.

"You've finished-" I turned around to see him, and I wasn't completely sure what expression I was making. "Changing.."

Just a few feet away from me stood Kamisato Ayato, in black pants and a black shirt that wasn't buttoned all the way. The sleeves were rolled up, revealing his forearms. He had a jacket which was loosely hanging on his shoulders.

Maybe I was staring too much. Maybe I was drooling. I wasn't completely sure what my body was doing when it felt like my soul had ascended.

"Well? Kurimiya-san?" His voice brought me back to Teyvat, and I visibly swallowed any unfathomable words that made their way into my mind.

"Do I look normal enough to pass as a traveling scholar?"

Who the fuck would think that's normal? This is illegal, sir. I don't know how to look away.

Aloud I said, "A traveling scholar?"

"You said we could pretend to be students from Sumeru travelling to do research, remember? You said anyone could recognise me in my previous clothes. Did you forget our plan already?" He chuckled, the sound melodic in the night air.

I wouldn't be surprised if I forgot my own name right now.

"I did..say that. Yeah. I didn't forget."

"Hm?" A familiar mischievous smile made its way to his face; the same one he had when he would say absurd things and watch people's face contort. I had been in many life threating situations. Once I had stayed trapped in a cave for five days, fell into an electro slime swamp, had a knife miss my heart in centimetres. Yet the express on Kamisato Ayato's face felt more threatening than any of that.

"Could it be.." he said, moving closer. I took steps back until my back hit the wooden railing.

"What?" I averted my gaze, suddenly feeling the urge to jump into the ocean below.

"Are you flustered right now, my dear assassin?"

I thanked the archons that it was dark, because I could feel my face flush.

"What, who, me? No. Why would I be? I was surveying our surroundings and thinking about the next step of our plan."

"Really?" His face was inches away from mine, and I couldn't help but shift my gaze to his lips. "Why don't you tell me the next step of our plan?"

"I- can you move away, Commissioner? You're-"

"Shh.." he put one finger on his lips, then twirled a lock of my hair. "You can't call me commissioner now. Hm..it seems you really forgot our plan, Kurimiya-san."

"Then what am I supposed to-"

"Ayato."

"But that's.. you're my employer-"

"But you call Ayaka Aya-chan, don't you?"

"That's only when there's no one around. And Aya-chan asked me to."

"And I'm asking you to do the same. We can't have someone figurine out who I am."

"Then, Kamisato-san."

Ayato shook his head, moving away a little. "There's only one Kamisato clan, Kurimiya-san. And it's well known."

"Fine." I agreed.

"Good. Then let's practice."

"I don't think that needs practice. It's not like we're preparing a game.."

"Hm?"

"Ayato.. are you happy now?"

"Of course." He leaned close to my ear. "Sora."

The sound of a zither pierced through the silence that followed, and we both looked up to see someone with white hair playing it on the roof.

He smiled and jumped down. "It seems I have interrupted. My apologies. I thought I was alone. Oh. It's Kamisato-dono."

I took the chance to slip away, but Ayato managed to catch up soon enough.

"Sora, there's still something you need to do."

"Whose head do you want-"

"Could you refrain from your violent thoughts for a moment?" He sighed. "I had thought about this, and since I've obliged to your request of changing what I was wearing, how about you do the same?"

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" I looked down at my all black attire, seeing no probs with it. I could blend in easily and it was comfortable.

"You look suspicious. And please don't tell me you plan to wear that mask."

"I'm not suspicious."

"Ayaka agreed with me and she was delighted to hear that you wanted a change of clothes. She personally picked out some for you. Now, you wouldn't want to make your dear friend sad now, would you?"

I glared at him. He put it out so perfectly that there was no way I could refute.

"Fine."

A few minutes later I came out wearing the black kimono which had complicated gold embroidery at the sleeves and the front. It wasn't long so that it wouldn't restrict my movements and with it came a pair of shorts and black boots. The kimono kept slipping on the shoulders so I had given up correcting it altogether since I was wearing something underneath. I didn't want to admit it, but it was more comfortable than what I was wearing.

"Well, now is it okay?"

Ayato smiled, his lingering gaze making me look away.

"More than that. I think this journey is going to be interesting."

****************

It's been a crazy few weeks and thank you for waiting patiently.

It's been beyond crazy, if you wanna hear about it, or not. Up to you.

Anyway, so I found out that someone had been stalking me. This dude even visited the place where I do my part-time job too. And he keeps telling me to talk in third person because that "suits" me more and it's more "innocent"

And I haven't figured out how but he found my number and kept on calling like twenty times in a span of a night before I blocked him.

He even took pictures of me while I was working, even though I told him to delete them he'd insist that it was "a harmless joke, no need to be so rude"

thanks to that asshole I've been avoiding walking home, anxiously checking my surroundings and well, not doing good. He follows me on his motorcycle and it's gotten to the point that I flinch at the sound.

He's gone on some job-related trip and I really hope he doesn't come back. He's also a lot older than me and keeps making comments like "you definitely look like you're in middle school"

Anyway, thank you for listening to my stalker talk. How was your day? I hope it was good.