The sound of his own footsteps were enough to keep Y/N alert, walking on the green plains of Narukami Island. In his gaze, there was the Grand Narukami Shrine, where he was headed to.
His own fears were causing his body to react to any sounds nearby, as he was quite alert to being seen by anyone. Hiding from everyone was a task he tended to do extremely often when he still did his duties as the General of the Tenryou Commission's forces. However, after merely a year of peacefulness, it seems his skills were unsharpened. They were still, more than enough to traverse through Kannazuka Island and reach Narukami Island.
"What do you mean that Yae Miko just appeared, and just took the two to her shrine? Couldn't you have stopped her?" Y/N asked loudly, but Sara didn't seem to have been startled as she looked at him with the same intensity.
"Yuri's condition was getting worse every day that passed without his vision. I couldn't... I couldn't simply get his vision back... I... Then, she appeared. She said she could stabilize him. She showed it to me. And I... let her take them. It was better this way." Sara explained, and Y/N looked away from her.
A moment of silence stood betweem them, and Mao stood still, scared one of them would lash out at him if he made a sound.
"...I'm going to go there, and bring them back." Y/N spoke, standing up and walking away. "Then what? How will you do that?" Sara said, as she stood up as well.
"I'll do whatever I need to." He answered, as he quickly closed the door and hurried to Narukami Island.
"... God. He's still as stubborn as ever." Sara said, as she now noticed the other boy in the room.
"Who are you?"
"Gah! I'm sorry!" He quickly bowed over and over, as he was still scared.
Currently, he was near the Shrine. He had managed to get here without being noticed by the Shogunate. He heard from Sara that his older brother, Masahito was currently on the Kujou Encampment near Tatarasuma. It was a shame, but he couldn't risk being caught while trying to speak with him.
The path between the islands usually required a boat, but that was unnecessary to Y/N, as he could simply freeze the water by walking on top of it. It was a terrible idea to bring someone with him, however, as not only there was a large chance they would fall in the water, it was also a pain to carry them if they got seasick.
Honestly, he should have refused when Mao said he wanted to go to Inazuma.
Either way, he was close to the large mountain in which the Grand Narukami Shrine was situated on.
After quickly going up the stairs that led to the top, and climbing by the quickest ways he could, he was now in front of the Shrine, he was able to see the large Sakura tree that stood in the middle of the shrine as he stared at the building.
Not losing any time, he entered the shrine, and after ignoring some shrine maidens, he went to the center of the place, where he was able to see a pink haired woman, she wore a white dress as she stared at the cherry blossoms that feel from the tree.
"I wasn't expecting you to have taken this long to come back. Were there some problems on the road or were you too scared to come meet me?" Yae Miko said, as she turned around and made eye contact with Y/N, who glared at her.
"Where are they?" He asked, coldly as he closed his hand into a fist. "Oh my, such coldness. Hana really took after you, hm?" She said, which only angered Y/N.
"Answer me." Y/N spoke once more, as Yae Miko laughed, "Is this how you treat your own kind, little Y/N? I only have the best of intentions." She continued, before Y/N summoned his katana, grabbing it and walking towards her.
As he steps on a small puddle, it freezes instantly as his vision glowed bright blue.
"Well, it seems I'll need to explain with a... different approach." She said, as she placed a hand on her mouth, Electro particles formed on the air around her as her eyes now had a bright purple tone.
========
"What's happening outside...? So noisy..." A small purple haired girl spoke, as she yawned, she had slept while sitting on a wooden chair, naturally she felt tired, as her neck hurt.
The girl was inside a plain and empty room, the walls were made of wood, which had been painted red. There was barely any furniture in it, albeit for a few chairs, tables and a bed.
She looked in front of her, at the bed, where a purple haired boy layed, apparently sleeping.
After stretching, she stood up, and opened the door attempting to see what was happening outside. Usually, there was a small hallway that led to outside, however she was slightly shocked when the walls had been apparently destroyed, as multiple large holes had been made in them.
To sum it all up, there were large signals of a battle here.
She felt scared to walk further beyond, as whatever happened here could also happen to the room the boy was inside of.
"Yuri!" She said, as she opened the door behind her, and quickly grabbed the boy's unconscious body, carrying him on her back. He was lighter than her, which made it possible for her to carry him around.
While walking, she made sure to not let herself be seen by anyone. It was a skill she had enhanced by herself in her childhood. She could even sneak past Y/N when he was distracted if she wanted to.
Carefully looking ahead, she made it out of the shrine. She hadn't seen whoever had destroyed the shrine yet, and she wasn't able to decide if that was a good or a bad thing to happen.
Either way, she kept walking, as she could now see the stairway that led back to the ground.
However, her instincts quickly alerted her of a person around, as she carried Yuri's body, dashing towards a tree, and hiding behind it.
Afterwards, she could hear the faint sounds of footsteps. It was barely audible, but enough to make her know someone was walking behind her.
She was planning on leaving immediately after this person went away, however, it seemed her brother had other plans, as he began groaning while unconscious. "W-what? Y-Yuri! N-not now!" The girl whispered, as the small sound seemed to be enough to catch the person's attention, who stopped walking.
"Who is there?" Said the person, but the girl freezed at the voice, but not out of fear, but of... familiarity. She quickly turned her head to see behind the tree, and she was able to see a man, with a black cape, he wore black clothes and golden gauntlets, with a golden feather in his hair.
"Y/N?" She spoke, shocked, as the man suddenly dashed towards her, and pulled her for a hug, embracing her on his arm.
"Hana. It's me. I'm back." Y/N said, as he placed a hand on her hair, caressing it. Hana stood in shock for a second, before finally accepting the hug, and pulling him even tighter. "Y-Y/N... Y-you... *sniff* you took so long..." Her voice cracked, as they ended the hug, the girl carefully placing Yuri's unconscious body on the floor, resting with his back to the tree.
"I'm sorry I took too long." He said, as he looked at Yuri. He placed a hand on his cheek, almost as if to check if he was alive.
"... What happened...? Where's the fox woman...?" Hana asked, as Y/N looked into the destroyed shrine for a second, before turning back to her. "I took care of her. She... She won't take you two again. I promise." He said, his face was serious, his eyes had seeming regained their energy.
Hana seemed to carefully look at the man's clothing, before noticing a few drops of blood hidden in the black clothing.
"... Good." Hana said, as she looked at Y/N. He was slightly different from what she remembers, but she could tell he was still as kind and careful as he was before.
"Even so, we have to go somewhere else. How is Yuri? Is his condition good enough for us to go to Inazuma City?" Y/N asked her, and she looked at the unconscious boy. "He's fine, for now. That woman somehow was being able to help him... Since they took his vision, he's been like this..." Hana said, as he approached the boy's body. She intended to carry him on her back, but Y/N was quicker than her, and grabbed him first.
She pouted, before looking away.
"Well, I assume he can stay like this until tomorrow, at least." Y/N said, as he carried the boy with both arms. "... He's as light as always..." He mumbled, as he decided to place the boy in his left shoulder.
"We'll head to Inazuma City." The man said, looking at the purple haired girl. Her bright green eyes stared at him, as he offered a hand for her to hold. "I'm not a child anymore. I can go without holding your hand." She said proudly, seconds before Y/N took her hand. "Hell no. We are at the top of a mountain." He said, as the girl seemingly accepted the argument. "Well, fine then. If you want so much."
Now, not in the same hurry as he was when he was coming, Y/N left the Grand Narukami Shrine, heading to Inazuma City.
"Y/N, where were you, all this time? Auntie Sara said you dissapeared." Hana asked, as they carefully looked at the ground while going down.
- Auntie Sara? When did she start calling her like that...? - He thought, confused.
"... I was in Liyue." Y/N spoke nonchalantly.
- Does that make me their father? - He had a nervous face as he thought about it. He considered them more as younger siblings, however it wasn't too far off to say they were like his children.
"Liyue!? Isn't that on the other side of the ocean?" Hana loudly exclaimed. "Yes... I had to flee because of the Shogunate going after me and everything. To me the best plan was going overseas." Y/N answered, as he decided to ignore the father/brother and daughter/sister relationship thoughts for now.
"... But... What were you doing all this time?" She asked, and Y/N seemed to think for a while.
"Hm... I was..."
"..."
"What was I doing all this time?" He said, as he himself realized he really didn't even know what he was doing in Liyue.
"I was scared of going back to Inazuma... And I guess I just tried to survive there for some time." He said, finally giving an answer.
"Scared? Of the Shogun?" The girl asked, as she made a short hop over a small hole, almost slipping if not for Y/N holding her hand.
"OOH-Ooops.." She blurted out, and Y/N only gave her a stare, as he thanked himself for wanting to hold her hand.
"See?" He said, as Hana blushed and looked away. "Yeah yeah, you were right." "Of course I was." He said, smiling lightly.
"Well, answering your question... I guess I was scared of everything... My duties, my family, my crimes. It took some time to accept that I had to come back." He said, reminiscing over that one ruin below Wuwang Hill.
"Oh. I guess I should mention. I'm getting married." Y/N said, nonchalantly, as Hana stared at him with a smile, apparently taking a few moments to realize the meaning of his words.
"Oh...! You what now?" Her smile faded into shock and surprise as she looked at him. "WHAT!? YOU!?" She exclaimed loudly, as she now turned towards him, blocking his path. "Explain right now! Who is her!? Or him!? Who is it!? How!?" She bombarded Y/N with questions as she apparently had mixed feelings about it.
"Um, we should talk and wa-" "NO, EXPLAIN RIGHT NOW!" She interrupted him, while basically demanding answers. It was quite a cute sight, to Y/N, as the small girl pointed at him with a heavy pout on her face.
- Honestly, she will probably get overprotective over me if she meets Tao... -
"... Her name is Hu Tao." He began, while he took Hana's hand once again, basically forcing them to go down while he talked.
"She's from Liyue Harbor, of course." He said, and watched Hana's expression while he talked. It seemed she was quite curious to know who had stolen Y/N's heart.
"She is the director of a funeral parlor." "She buries people!?" Hana said, and soon placed a hand on her mouth, before taking it away and looking at the ground. "...Please continue." She mumbled.
- Was it so surprising to her? - Y/N thought, they were almost halfway down. It was fine to be so carefree for now, as he doubted there would be any soldiers around the Shrine.
"She has brown hair. She usually wears them in two pigtails, like you. She had red eyes, but I find her eyes beautiful. It's almost like stars looking at you. I love that there's a really small amount of makeup at near her eyes. Like she wants to look prettier, but doesn't want to be too obvious about it. I find that extremely cute about her. She wears a hat that belonged to her Grandfather, she resized it herself because not only was her head small but her Grandfather also seemed to have a large head." Y/N said, and Hana listened in silence.
"She's very fun to be around. She's very tricky, too. She loves playing pranks on everyone, no matter who, if she ever met Rex Lapis, the Geo Archon, I have no doubt that she'd try to play a prank on him. But I love that about her, too. She wants to enjoy every day in her life, the best way she can. Thinking like that, I'm honored she chose me to be her partner. Does that mean I'm the one who brings her the most fun? I guess? Well, even so, she makes my days worthwhile, and the troubles seem to go away when she's around, too." He kept rambling, until he noticed Hana staring at him, with almost a surprised face.
"Oh, I rambled a bit too much about her, sorry." He said, blushing slightly.
"... Wow, you're really down bad for her." Hana mumbled, as she stared at him while they walked.
"That's...! ...true, yeah." Y/N wanted to retort the comment, before realizing it was indeed the truth, and looked away, blushing.
- He looked... so happy while talking about her... - Hana thought, as she remembers his face while speaking.
"Well, now I know why you took so long there, hm?" She said, with a small smirk in her face, as Y/N looked away.
"I bet you could talk for hours like that about her, hmmmm?" She kept teasing him, as her smirk grew further. "...Who did you learn to be like that from?" Y/N asked, but Hana only gave him a brash smile in return.
After some time, they had finally gotten back to the ground.
"From here on, stay close to me. We don't know what can happen, okay?" Y/N said, as he pulled her a bit closer. "Ay ay." She said, almost like the crewmate of a pirate ship. "I'm being serious." "Roger, captain!" She said, smiling proudly as Y/N seemed to sigh and give up. "Just please stay close." Y/N spoke, as Hana nodded.
He looked at the unconscious boy in his shoulder. He could feel his heartbeat and his breathing, and once in a while he made some sounds, but there was no sign of him waking up.
Suddenly, his instincts flared up. He quickly let Yuri on the ground and let go of Hana's hand, who seemed to understand the signal and hid with Yuri behind a tree.
After some time, he was able to see a blonde, with yellow eyes, running towards the shrine, and stopping once he saw Y/N.
"You were on the Rite of Descension. Who are you?" Y/N asked, he was ready to attack or defend an attack if this man did something.
"Aether... Wait for me...!" Behind the blonde, there floated a small girl with white silver hair, who seemed to be tired. However, she seemed to panic slightly as she saw Y/N.
"Hey! You're the guy that killed the Fatui Harbinger in Liyue! What are you doing here!?" The floating girl exclaimed as she pointed her finger towards him.
"I asked first." Y/N said, as he stood alert of the blonde, who was silent.
"This is Aether, and Paimon's Paimon! And you are?" Said Paimon, the floating girl.
- Aether and Paimon. Sounds familiar enough. It seems she didn't tell them anything. Good, it's better this way. -
"I'm Y/N. What are you two doing here? If it's to the visit the shrine, there's no reason to. Some guys from the Resistance apparently sneaked up here and destroyed the whole place. The Guuji Yae dissapeared, too." He explained, as he looked at the shrine on top of the mountain. From here, it wasn't possible to see much.
"What!? We've got to go help out!" Paimon said, as she looked at Aether, who looked back at her. Both ran past him, however, Aether's eyes seemed to make eye contact with Y/N's for a second.
After the two were out of sight, Y/N sighed.
- He knows something is going on. As long as he doesn't find out the whole truth, it's enough. -
Y/N thought as Hana snuck out of her hiding spot, now carrying Yuri.
"Y/N, did you lie to them?" She asked, a worried expression on her face.
"It's better this way. They seemed like the Heroes of Justice type of person. I can't afford a fight with you two around." He said, as he approached her and carried Yuri once more.
"... If you say so..." Hana said, as she once more looked at the small drops of blood on his black clothing. Almost undetectable unless they were looking for it. She sighed and began walking as they headed once more to Inazuma City.
=================
"Um, I'm surprised you got here and not a single soldier saw you three." Mao said, as he offered a glass of water to both Y/N and Hana.
"That's because me and Y/N are experts at sneaking around!" Hana said, proudly. "Is that even something to be proud of...?" Y/N mumbled, before drinking the water.
They were currently inside Mao's old house. It was quite dusty, and it seemed like it hadn't been used for over a decade.
Y/N looked over at the unconscious Yuri, who slept peacefully on the sofa next to them.
"... Um, not that I mind you three here, since I do owe you a lot... but shouldn't you have at least... you know... told me you were a wanted criminal before we came...?" Mao asked Y/N, with the largest amount of anger Y/N had heard in his voice since they met, and even so, it was minimal.
"I'm sorry." Y/N said, looking at the ground.
"Well... It's going to be tough to not use my vision... I'm too worried that they're going to somehow know I have a vision..." Mao mumbled as he looked at his Electro Vision. While it was quite a paranoid thought, Y/N could understand, as there was a bounty over vision holders, all it took was one snitch and you're being sent to prison.
Y/N sighed. He couldn't even leave and walk around. Unless he got lucky and met a soldier that didn't know his face, it was very likely that most people here knew him. He was the Ex-General, after all.
Hana currently bit on a Lavender Melon as he was organizing his thoughts.
"Hey, Mao, is it too bad if I were to ask for another favor?" Y/N said as he looked at Mao, who was organizing something on another table. "Um, it depends? What is it?" He said, as Y/N took out the three pairs of earbuds Mao had given him a while ago.
"You know how these can transport voice, right. Is it too hard to make it so that we can change that voice, like, when I speak, what comes out is a woman's voice?" Y/N explained, as Mao placed a hand on his chin to think. "Oh, not at all, I'd just need to place some interference in the right way to do so... That's a good idea, actually. Next time I need a good idea I should go talk to you..." He said, smiling.
"So um, would you be able to do that for me?" Y/N asked, as Mao looked at the materials he had brought with him, and the ones he had here already.
"I'll probably need one of the pairs of earbuds I gave you... And some Mora...?" Mao said, as Y/N nodded. "Yes, of course." He answered, and Mao smiled, "It's good, then. I don't have much to do with the Vision Hunt thing going on, so I have a lot of free time. I'll tell you when I'm done." Mao said, as Y/N handed him the pair of earbuds.
After some time, there was a knock on the door, all three got alert for a moment, before a voice could be heard. "Mao. It's me, Sara."
After verifying it was indeed her, Mao opened the door, letting the General enter, as she noticed Y/N, Hana and Yuri in the house.
"Auntie Sara!" Hana quickly hurried towards her, and hugged her, as Sara returned the hug. "Oh, uh, Hi, Hana." She said, awkwardly, as she wasn't expecting to see her so soon.
"Y/N... What did you do?" Sara said, as she looked at Yuri's unconscious body on the sofa, then stared at Y/N with a dissapointed expression.
"Don't look at me like that. I didn't do anything wrong." He retorted, as Sara looked at his eyes.
"... Well um, I may have some explaining to do...?" He continued, as he looked away from her. Sara sighs, as Hana stopped hugging her.
"Why do I have the feeling you're going to make me have a lot of problems to deal with...?"
"... Because you probably will."
"Ugh."
=======
3859 words.