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In the blink of an eye, he felt a sharp pain in his stomach. His blade fell from his hand with a clatter as it hit the ground. Kazuha instinctively clenched his stomach, feeling wetness as he did. He winced in pain, pulling back his hand to see blood. Lots of it.
“Hey.”
Kazuha focused his attention back on his enemy who, despite his best efforts, still was standing before him. “What do you want, you bastard,” he spat.
“You’re bleeding.”
“No shit I’m bleeding, you stabbed me.” He felt his legs buckle but kept his balance, reaching to grab his blade off the ground. “I’m not finished yet.”
His adversary’s eyes narrowed. “You should be.”
“A samurai does not give up. We fight to our last breath.”
“You’re no samurai, Kaedehara Kazuha.”
“Then what have you to fear?”
The man before him scowled before summoning his polearm, infused with Electro energy. Kazuha grimaced, recalling the blow from moments earlier, but tightened his grip and raised his blade once more. His stomach ached from the powerful blow, practically crying for him to stop, but Kazuha was focused. He’d suffered worse pains before.
When his opponent struck, he dodged, sending a quick burst of Anemo at his feet, temporarily knocking him off his balance. He took this opportunity to follow up with a short jab at the other, who narrowly missed the tip of his blade.
“You fight better than I remember.”
“Survival is first nature to a wandering samurai such as myself,” Kazuha replied.
“Quit the ‘samurai’ talk. You have no aim, no name to defend, no master.”
“Ah, but I am all of those to myself. I am Kaedehara Kazuha, a wandering samurai. I fight for the honor to live.”
“Tsk.”
The next bout from his enemy was much swifter than the last. Three quick jabs followed with a large, sweeping slash that left the head of the polearm lodged in the ground. Electro energy swirled through the air, raising the hairs on the back of his neck. His opponent sharply pulled up his weapon, thrusting it towards Kazuha’s wounded side. An extension of bright purple electricity grazed his flesh. Kazuha could feel the heat and shock from the electric blade course through his body. It should have made him weaker, it should have sapped the last of his energy out of his body.
Instead, it gave him power.
“This ends here,” he said.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” came the response, along with another series of blows. Kazuha wove between each of them, sparks of electric current leaping towards his skin. Now was his time to take the offensive.
He began his attack by casting off a strong gust of Anemo that sent the man before him tumbling to the ground. As he stood up again, Kazuha watched his composed stance falter, clearly beginning to give in to exhaustion.
“It doesn’t have to be like this,” Kazuha called to him, almost pleading.
“It does,” his opponent responded. “I offered you the chance to join me. You declined. I gave you fair warning that I would not stand resistance.”
“Can’t you see that you’re on the wrong side?”
“There is no wrong side. You are with me or you are against me.”
“The world is not so black and white, Ryuu.”
“Do not speak my name,” he hissed, slashing his polearm wildly. “Do not dare speak the name of the Harbinger Scaramouche!”
Kazuha took a step back to avoid the Electro-infused tip of the weapon. Kazuha fought back with a slash of his own, thrust forward further by Anemo power.
“Or what?” Kazuha taunted.
“Or...” Ryuu’s voice trailed off. A moment of weakness?
Kazuha lowered his weapon. “We can fix this. Come home with me and we can-”
A bolt of blinding white and purple light halted his words as Ryuu stabbed him with all his might. The pain washed over him all at once. He felt his legs, arms, chest, sides, head, scream as the electricity seared him.
“What did you...do?” he asked, weakly.
“Kaedehara Kazuha, I have killed you.”
Kazuha was barely standing, his breathing ragged. But he still had faith. Faith that his friend was still in there, faith that whatever fate had brought them together again after so long would not be so cruel and unjust. “Not… yet.” He used what little energy that remained in his body to summon a massive wind current to surround them.
“What are you doing, you idiot! Can’t you just die already!?”
“Not... yet !” Kazuha cried.Channeling all the elemental power in the air into a single blade of Anemo energy, he plunged the weapon like a missile straight through Ryuu’s torso.
Kazuha had killed before. Animals he hunted for food would whimper as he decisively stabbed them. Ronins he’d faced had a final cry out to their masters. Ryuu let out a scream unlike any he’d ever heard. It pierced his ears, tinged with anguish and betrayal underneath the sound of agonizing pain. It rang, echoing through the forest around them, reverberating off of trees and rocks and sticks, all right back to Kazuha.
And then there was silence. Ragged breathing. Raspy whispers. The sound of his weapon hitting the ground. Kazuha felt his body finally give out and he tumbled to the ground, shaking still from the electric current running through his veins.
“Are you still there?” he asked weakly.
“No,” Ryuu deadpanned.
“...I don’t think I’m going to live.”
“Then I did my job.”
They sat in silence for a few moments, the sounds of nature taking over once more. No more screams of pain or clash of blades, instead, birds chirping, streams babbling. The world was no stiller than with either of them in it. Kazuha supposed it was fair that he died in such a manner. He was content to spend his last moments alive laying on the ground. In truth, he’d hoped for a much more restful death. Ryuu whispered something under his breath.
“I can’t hear you,” Kazuha said.
“Good.”
“No. What did you say?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Ryuu, we are dying. Together.”
“It’s Scaramouche ,” he coughed out weakly.
“No. I defeated Scaramouche. You defeated Kaedehara Kazuha.”
“Clearly not,” he said, audibly frowning. “You won’t shut up.”
Kazuha ignored the comment and continued. “All that’s left is our true selves. I am just Kazuha. And you are Ryuu.”
“Ryuu, huh?” He repeated the name a few times. “I haven’t said my own name in so long… it seems foreign to me.”
Silence fell upon them once more. More chirping birds, more babbling streams, this time fainter. My time… is coming.
“Ryuu?” he asked. No response. “Ryuu?”
He gathered his strength to shift himself closer to him. He crawled towards his friend’s body, sprawled out on the grass, blood seeping through his robes. Frantically, he propped himself up against Ryuu’s chest. His eyes were shut. Kazuha held his ear to his chest, listening for his heartbeat.
Beat-beat.
Beat-beat.
Beat-beat.
“You asshole...”
“I thought you would shut up and let me die in peace.”
Another silence.
“Kazuha?”
“Yes?”
“I’m afraid.”
“Afraid of...”
“Dying.”
“Oh.”
“Kazuha?”
“Yes?”
This time, Kazuha turned to look at Ryuu’s indigo eyes. They were red, welling with tears. “Will you hold me?”
Kazuha felt what little of what was left of his heart break. “Of course.” He carefully sat up from his position on Ryuu's chest. He peered around, spotting a comfortable try to lie against. He shuffled them to the tree. Then he positioned himself, crossing his legs, to cradle his body on top of his own.
In truth, Kazuha hoped for a much more restful death. He wanted to be older, having lived a free life, one of experiences had and travels made. He wanted to have seen the sunset from every nation in Teyvat. He wanted to have tried making every dish he ever learned and feed his whole village.
“So…many… regrets,” Kazuha whispered.
“Me too...”
“Do you regret meeting me?”
“No.” Ryuu said, his voice fading slightly. “Do you regret meeting me?”
Kazuha’s mind hesitated but his voice spoke first. “No.”
“Even though I betrayed you?”
“No.”
“Even though it cost your life?”
“No.”
“Kazuha, it is an honor to die in your arms.”
“Ryuu, it is an honor to die by your hands.”
And in one final breath, Kazuha ceased to hear the birds.