Chapter Text
Someone had been trying to find him. A cursory glance may have suggested it would be one of his annoyingly affable classmates or that one buzzing busy bee boy, who had decided he liked his hat and wanted to be friends, but the Fatui where good at promoting paranoia and it didn’t take much digging to find out the ‘charming young man’ who had been asking after him in every foreseeable location was of Inazuman identity.
That didn’t exactly narrow the list down, he had many long bitter years to make many enemies and the last time he’d set foot in his home country couldn’t exactly be said to be for ‘friendly’ reasons, even if his involvement would likely be forgotten now sometimes the overload of his own dual memories made it hard to remember that occasionally, but it did start a gnawing in his gut that seemed impossible to shake.
The pavilion, nestled between miskept garden beds in a fairly hidden alcove of the Akademiya, he had discovered during those tiresome first few weeks of his academic career when his quick enrolment in classes two weeks after the start of semester had garnered him many unwanted gazes and curious questions he was only too happy to dodge. So when he bumped into Al Haithem outside of Nahida’s office, knowing the man placed great value being undisturbed, he had asked about a good location for a tactical retreat. The man had raised his eyebrows ever so slightly, which he now knew to be a warning for incoming teasing, and told him about the pavilion, though Al Haithem still occasionally commented on his ‘hiding’ from his classmates even months later. He had soon enough gotten accustomed to his new classmates as they had him, in what he still considered a rather tenuous alliance but Nahida assured him was just normal Akademiya student behaviour, after all no one really had time for personal questions when you were all collectively struggling to make sense of lecture notes enough to write a 2,000 word essay in response, which he supposed was fair, and the questions where always more curious than malicious as he’d expected at first so even if most of them he couldn’t answer he didn’t mind being asked once in a while. He had even, more so on Nahida’s insistence then his own personal desire, gone out to the tavern once or twice with them in an ‘effort to build camaraderie’, he wasn’t sure how successful they had been but maybe they weren’t as detestable as he’d originally supposed. So the pavilion was left unassuming and unused for the most part, but its location was hidden and constructive enough that no students would be close enough to get caught in the crossfire should he need to start a fight, though he had pinkie promised Nahida that he would only do so on Akademiya grounds if absolutely necessary so he hoped it wouldn’t come down to that.
The rush of students leaving the hall would give his little follower a slight pause, enough to give him a head start, enough to fly up quietly and ascertain exactly who he was dealing with. Ahh, sorry Nahida I’m not so sure I can avoid a fight here.
The Kaedehara heir cut a striking figure, even as he was doing his best to be stealthy, a surprisingly valiant effort given the white and red of his countenance ill suited to hiding him in the brown and green tones of the academia, though the half-measure of a cloak was a little pathetic. But he moved with a shrewdness and practice that intrigued him, if not for his current flying advantage he likely wouldn’t have caught the approach at all.
He wasn’t sure what he was expecting the Kaedehara heir to look like. He only realised now that every time he’d pictured him he had always imagined the other would look like the splitting image of Niwa. But it had been centuries. And Kaedehara Kazuha did not look like Niwa Hisahide. They weren’t completely dissimilar of course, hints of his ancestry scattered the approaching man’s features and that confusingly genetic red streak of hair stood out even more prominently in his pale locks was a dead giveaway to his identity, but he was not the same, he wasn’t even that close. Though, none of that changed the fact that he was here to kill him.
He hadn’t expected him to come so soon though. He had done plenty of unpleasant things that he was still making amends for but, perhaps it had been his previous position, or even the simple fact that he had not been the worst of his comrades even in his previous position, no one had come after him so specifically and so directly before. The traveller must have bumped into him on their way to Fontaine, or during one of their many pit stops along the way. He had said that they were free to tell the Kaedehara heir everything, he was done running from his past after all, and he had done the Kaedehara’s much wrong, vengeance was only to be expected. However, he hadn’t anticipated how high a priority he’d be made in the little heir’s mind, really it was almost flattering. It had only been a few months since he settled in Sumeru and while he never planned to go down without a fight, he had promised himself that he would do what was needed to settle any grievances and pay back what he could, the timing was inconvenient to say the least. He had promised Nahida his help after all and he had two essays worth 60% of his grade due next week.
He landed, readjusting his hat as he stepped into the pavilion and readying himself for the confrontation, perhaps this Kaedehara Kazuha would be kind enough to delay their inevitable duel, if only even for a few weeks so he could get all his essays in on time and work out a compromise with Nahida should he actually be killed.
A pause. Kaehara had stopped his approach. How boring, the little rabbit had gotten so close, he couldn’t possibly be thinking about running now.
“No use in hiding now Kaedehara, not when you’ve already gotten so close”
“Please call me Kazuha, no one uses the name Kaedehara anymore. You know of me?” He replied, finally stepping into the pavilion.
Huh? So he was going to pretend he knew nothing, like he wouldn’t recognise him on sight. Not an unreasonable approach, but less direct than he was expecting from the heir of the noble Kaedeharas. He briefly considered letting it play out like the little heir wanted, pretending to be unaware of the threat he faced, but he saw how the man’s hand twitched on the hilt of his blade, nervous, ready to draw, and annoyance hummed in his stomach.
“Don’t play coy Kaedehara, it's not a good look on you. I know you and we both know why you’re here.”
“We do?”
Unfortunate that Kaedehara seemed committed to his act. He had promised Nahida that he would eat with her tonight and if he wanted to be on track for completing his essays he needed to stop by the house of Daena and look for some good reference material as well, so he may as well just cut to the chase.
“You know who I am.” He stated matter of factly.
“I do,” the other man nodded slowly in agreement, puzzled look still not leaving his face. He had to give it to him, the Kaedehara heir was a skilled actor, if he didn’t know better he would have believed his confusion real.
“You are Kuni, are you not? Forgive me if I’ve called you improperly, that is the name I was given.”
‘Kuni’ The name sometimes still grated on his ears, unfamiliar sounding in reference to himself. He didn’t even really know why he’d chosen to be called it. Nahida, in all her infinite wisdom, had already gone and enrolled him in everything he needed to be under the alias of ‘Hat Guy’ and that was still the moniker he listed in all official documents. But when his professors and classmates had turned to him and asked what they should call him with quiet befuddlement at the option of Hat Guy, for which he could not blame them despite how embarrassingly warm his chest got the first few times Nahida had used it with sincerity, he found himself uttering the short form of the only name he’d ever given himself, even if the full form was slightly edgier than he wanted to acknowledge.
Perhaps it was some bizarre form of latent sentimentality, but he had been called many things already; hat guy, kabukimono, scaramouche, impertinent brat (but like probably more nicely than he deserved, said between a scoff and a half laugh of laughing at something someone righteous probably wasn’t supposed to, another traveller speciality) but he had never been called this name before, even a bastardised version of it, a private name given to himself when he felt the most betrayed. But when asked by expectant eyes, suddenly, strangely it was the only thing that came to mind.
That hadn’t meant it was an easy adjustment though. More often than not he would miss being called by it entirely, the name bouncing off his preoccupied mind unregistered. And sometimes, when it did register, it felt strange and pinched like trying on a new pair of shoes that hadn’t been broken-in just yet. It didn’t help that they say it differently here in Sumeru, the accent changes it, the vowels are longer and less sharp, he doesn’t dislike the change, it’s a bit different but it’s not like he really even had a point of comparison to stand by. But Kaedehara says it with perfect Inazuman pronunciation, and he briefly wonders how he’d say the full thing Kunikuzushi, country destroyer, he wonders if Kaedehara Kazuha would finally be the one to make it sound like the threat it was. But still not exactly the name he’d expected to be called by the last remaining member of a family he’d caused the ruin of many many years ago, perhaps it was a fitting title though.
He goes on before Kuni has the chance to interrupt, “-the academic under the name of Hat Guy?”
A strange turn of events, he hadn’t expected the Kaedehara heir to have read any of his academic writing. He gives a sharp nod in answer to the question.
“I’m here because you have written quite a lot on my family history, large parts of it that not even I was aware of previously. I’m actually in the process of looking back into myself and would love to talk to you about your findings and what your sources are. Did you anticipate my arrival?”
An erring of caution, a half relaxed hand that meant he probably wasn’t telling the whole truth, but it wasn’t a lie. He wasn’t lying. This wasn’t an act. The Kaedehara heir knew nothing of their past and had sought him out organically, which meant two things, first that he could probably get those essays in alright after all, and second that he now had to have a conversation that he really didn’t want to.