Chapter Text
"Good luck traveller, have a safe journey"
Aether and Paimon strolled away from the docks with Thoma. Kazuha watched them walk away until they were just distant blurry dots barely taking any form before turning to Beidou.
"You look like you want to stay awhile" She commented smiling softly at the younger
"How do you know that?" he asked surprised
"I see how your eyes longing stare at the familiar surroundings of your home" Beidou responded looking out to the distance like Kazuha was
"the creet flux and the crew are my home, this place abandoned me so coldly I can only see it as a place I once dwelled in" Kazuha replied looking towards the captain
"well if one day you decide to come back, you can always ask" Beidou offered "I guess we should get going then"
Kazuha thought for a second. A sense of unfulfillment lingered in his chest as he felt a sudden homesickness. Though for him staying in Inazuma would be risky especially at his time as the shogunate are very active with the vision hunt decree but his heart was longing for the nostalgia the place gave him.
"I think I will stay this time round" Kazuha decided of a whim
"Seriously!" Beidou exclaimed "shouldn't you think more on it?"
"No its okay, I haven't seen some of my companions who live here for awhile" He responded
"Ah I see, well I'll miss you Kazuha you have been a great to have on board" she answered
"Your acting like I'm leaving forever" The boy laughed lightly "come and pick me up in a few months time" He smiled softly
"I will" Beidou was smiling back but sadness still filled her bright eyes "see you in two months" She said attempting to impersonate her usual cheerful tone but failing.
--
Once Kazuha stepped onto the docks he noticed how the sun shined brightly above him in the sky, though despite the sun being out it was still cold. Crispy brown leaves littered the floors of Ritou obviously stating that it was the middle of autumn, They crunched loudly as Kazuha strolled across them. Occasionally he would take an extra long step just to hear the satisfying crinkle the leaves would make.
He made his way to Honka village slowly making sure to take in all his surroundings. The village wasn't very busy as it was very small. The poet found a patch of grass not too far from the village and sat down under a big shady tree he looked upon the gaps of sunlight surrounding him. The grass underneath him was damp suggesting that it had rained recently and that the grey clouds ahead evinced the fact that it may pour again. The boy pulled out a bag of mora that had been sitting in the bottom of his pocket and started to count it. He sighed heavily to himself once he was done looking at the shining gold coins in dismay.
"only 30 mora?" He said out loud. "I'm going nowhere with that"
Though originally he was going to meet with his subordinates from Watatsumi island, The sudden idea of visiting the Grand Narukami Shrine popped into his head as he was relatively close to the path there. He wished to travel there as he remembered the view was truly incredible up there especially when the sun would to fade into darkness.
The sun was starting to melt into the horizon making the sky bleed into multiple darkish colours signalling that the land would soon be overcast in shadows. Kazuha watched as the stars began shining through the darkness of the night lighting up the sky dimly, each star shined as bright as another, each having a different story to tell and that's what Kazuha loved so much about the stars. He felt that he could look at them forever and think of a tale for each one.
--
The rain gently hit the ground as Kazuha woke up to his most favourite sound rushing through his ears. He loved the rain more than he loved the stars. He loved everything about it; the smell, the sound and the feeling. He loved how the clouds look and the atmosphere it gives off. To him rain in the autumn hit different.
--
Despite Kazuha's love for rain one thing he doesn't appreciate is when it begins too rain hard unexpectedly because now he was trudging miserably to The Grand Narukami shrine in heavy rain. His clothes dragged him down and they were cold, his hair was stuck to his face covering his eyes slightly and the worst part? He had caught some kind of illness. Kazuha tries to see the positive in everything but he just couldn't so he tried to hum a happy tune but it never lifted his mood.
--
Finally reaching the top kazuha sighed heavily and sat on the floor looking down all the stairs he had climbed up. His condition had gotten worst and he had the most skull splitting headache and he felt tired and his bones ached and felt heavy, the back of his throat itched and was sore and he had a runny nose which was always the worst part of being sick in his opinion.
Whilst resting at the top of the mountain he noticed something. Even though he hadn't been to Inazuma recently, he remembered that his surrounding looked more like somewhere on Mt Yougou. He must have accidentally taken a wrong turn at some point because of how dazed he felt. Annoyed he stood up and turned abruptly making him fall and trip on a stone and he yelled out in annoyance and pain.
As soon as he realised that he had been a bit too loud he covered his mouth but he was to late as he knew his mountain was littered with fatui and he could already see four agents coming towards him as they realised he was there. He summoned his sword and stumbled toward them, he could see why he was such an easy target. Due to this sickened state he was a lot slower than normal. He hit one with his sword and while he was fighting one agent and different one came up behind him. He heard them running at him so he turned around ready to attack but the agent he had just supposedly knocked out wasn't actually unconscious and dragged him down and climbed on top of him hitting his jaw roughly knocking Kazuha out.
--
The smoke of the lavender incense burning near by filled the room twisting and turning in the air. The room was unfamiliar to Kazuha so when he woke up he was rather confused. His usual perfectly clean white clothes were stained with blood and mud. He thought he was alone until a voice spoke behind him.
"So your finally awake" the voice acknowledged.
Kazuha turned to face the person and stared in disbelief. He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him so he proceeded to blink hardly too see if the male would disappear.
"I am real, your not going to get rid off me by blinking" the person said in a bland tone
"Scaramouche?" Kazuha asked confused, also shocked "What am I doing here?"
the other boy laughed a bit, "you know I'm just helping a friend in need" he replied happily with an obviously fake smile plastered on his face that he couldn't be bothered to put in the effort of making it look a little genuine.
"We aren't friends"
Scaramouche slumped into a chair beside the white haired boy. Kazuha in a rush of sudden fear stood up quickly repeating his question.
"What am I doing here? Kazuha asked again only getting agitated because he felt awful with his sickness.
"Like I said, I was helping you" the harbinger responded empathising the word 'helping'
Unsure on what to say Kazuha stared at the other boy with his arms crossed and scowl on his face. The atmosphere was intense and Kazuha's eyes showed uneasiness. At any moment he was prepared to pull his sword out on Scaramouche.
"Why did you bring me here.. you could've let me die?" Kazuha said regretting his choice of words a bit.
"Do you want me to kill you?" Scaramouche questioned gritting his teeth slightly.
"Not really it's just.. never mind" Kazuha sighed the last part of his sentence Not really sure on what he was going to say next.
The two boys stared at each other intensely. The longer Kazuha stared into Scaramouches eyes the more he could see that his eyes were the exact colour of electric purple. The closer you looked the more you can see the desire casted into his eyes.
"Why are you staring? Do you have something to say?" Scaramouche sneered at the boy standing in front of him
Kazuha hadn't noticed until now but Scaramouches expression had dropped into a dirty look his eyebrows were furrowed together creating an irritated expression on his face.
"I'm not a patient person you know, you obviously have something to say so say it." He snapped
He proceeded to give Kazuha a death glare until the other replied,
"nothing" he said quietly. He still gave Kazuha a hard stare that made him shiver
"Say again, I didn't hear" he taunted
"There is nothing I want to say" Kazuha told him more loudly
Scaramouche stood up and stalked towards Kazuha with a menacing look on his face. The white haired boy Gulped nervously taking a couple of steps backwards every time Scaramouche got closer.
Eventually Kazuha felt himself softly hit a wall the was behind him. An unreadable look on his face as he watched Scaramouche cautiously as he approached him.
"What scared?" he teased laughing slightly.
Though for some reason you could hear disappointment laced in with his teasing tone.
Kazuha didn't know what to say and just shook his head slowly.
Scaramouche Shoved Kazuha up against the wall pinning him down. His eyes observed every inch of Kazuha's body. The poet pushed the harbinger off in confusion. His deathly eyes stared into Kazuha's, Piercing his soul with the cold look that he gave to the other.
"What are you doing" Kazuha Stammered a bit panicked. He knew Scaramouche was unpredictable but not like this.
"Your lucky your even alive." He mumbled not intending for the white haired boy to hear
"What do you mean by that" Kazuha asked confused
"Nothing" Scaramouche said rolling his eyes
Kazuha gave him a strange confused look.
"You can stay until the rain stops but then you'll have to leave" Scaramouche offered
"Sure" Kazuha said almost glad that he won't have to be out in the storm and he could just watch it peacefully from a window instead but also wondered by the harbinger had offered.
"Come with me and I can show you were you can sleep, if you end up staying the night" Scaramouche said grabbing the other boys shoulder which tensed at his touch and showed him to his room.
"I hope you don't mind the fact we have to share a room but there are separate beds" Scaramouche explained
The room was pretty big and very bland, there was a double bed which Kazuha assumed was just for Scaramouche and there was a small single bed close to the window.
Kazuha smiled a bright smile at the sight of having a bed close to the window at the time he didn't question why there was an extra bed just in the harbingers room.
"That's fine" he said
"Alright, don't bother me and don't touch anything" Scaramouche turned to leave, Kazuha just smiled and nodded.
When Scaramouche left, Kazuha walked over to where the single bed was and climbed onto it. He sat down cross legged and watched the window as single droplets fell down the window Kazuha traced them with his fingers like a little kid would do and slowly he got lost in his own little world of thoughts and daydreams.