Work Text:
“How has my life come to this?” Diluc spoke out loud to himself, leaning against the banister of the Alcor’s upper deck. He watched the waves splash at the ship’s hull, rising and falling. On the horizon he could see the outline of Tenshukaku, and much closer he could see the large mountain that hosted the Sacred Sakura. The Alcor was nearing the port of Ritou, one of Inazuma’s smallest islands. Trees adorned with bright red leaves drew the man’s attention, Diluc’s home of Mondstadt didn't have such brightly colored trees. Were their colors the result of the fast approaching autumn? Or were they like this year-round?
Now was not the time to admire Inazuma’s lovely scenery, Diluc was here for one reason, or rather, three very cute reasons.
Somehow the Knights of Favonius had allowed two children to sneak away to Liyue, where they picked up a third friend, and made their way to Inazuma, presumably as stowaways.
The children in question? None other than the Ordo’s very own Spark Knight Klee, who Diluc assumed to be the ringleader. Accompanied by Diona, a young bartender from the Cat’s Tail, and Qiqi, a zombie from Liyue’s Bubu Pharmacy.
How the knights had allowed such a destructive little kid like Klee out of their sights was beyond him. He assumed that it had something to do with Diona. As someone with Kätzlien blood she was great at moving stealthily.
Diluc didn't know much about the young zombie, other than the fact that she was friends with the other two.
What godforsaken reason did these kids go all the way to Inazuma for? Paimon, the traveler’s floating companion, theorized that they went to visit their new friend Sayu. Who, of course, lives in Inazuma's
Now, the concern here wasn't that the kids would get hurt. All three of them had Visions. Diona and Qiqi were both commendable healers and Klee could kill a hilichurl in the blink of an eye. The issue was that these little girls just had to visit Inazuma. The nation closed off to the rest of Teyvat due to their Archon’s decrees. The nation known for its strict rules and regulations. The nation where it was not uncommon for the Shogunate to use force. The nation known for its controversial Vision Hunt Decree, that left it’s victims stripped of ambition and life, leaving behind a husk of a person.
That was the real danger here.
Diluc foolishly took it upon himself to go and retrieve them before anything horrible befell them.
The knights were short staffed and irresponsible and the famous traveler Lumine and her floating fairy Paimon had an arrest warrant on their heads, courtesy of the Shogunate. Clearly the only person capable of completing this task was Diluc himself.
As the Alcor’s crew began preparations to dock in the harbor, he heard a high pitched voice call out his name from the other end of the ship.
“Master Diluc! Over here!”
‘What a headache.’
He leaned over the railing and looked at the water. A small two person boat bobbed up and down in the waves. Paimon appeared out of nowhere, inches from the redhead’s face. “Diluc! Hop in!” She urged.
Lumine poked her head out of the window and waved to him. Diluc noted how the accents of the traveler’s outfit were purple rather than yellow and teal as they had been before.
“Hop in?” He asked.
“Yeah! We have to sneak you into Inazuma with the Waverider!” Paimon squeaked.
Just listening to the little fairy speak was enough to give him a headache. He had nothing against Paimon, her voice was just very irritating to listen to. This was going to be a very long boat ride.
-
After thanking Captain Beidou, a woman who seemed to love alcohol as much as Diluc’s own brother, Kaeya, he got in the boat with the Traveler.
He usually only openly criticized the knights, but wow , Lumine was a horrible driver. He was practically pulling his hair out over here! The amount of times they nearly hit a rock or ran ashore was absurd.
Luckily they arrived on the shore of Narukami Island with their lives intact. Diluc’s sanity? It left much to be desired.
“Bye Diluc! Sorry to leave you here, but someone promised Paimon tri-colored dango!” Paimon spoke with her hands on her hips, the look complete with a shit-eating grin.
“Stay away from the Shogunate.” Lumine advised before backing up the Waverider. She only bumped into a rock once this time, good for her.
At long last, Diluc's tiresome search for this trio of tiny troublemakers was now underway.
Where to begin? Now that was a hard question. What would Diona, Klee, Sayu and Qiqi want to get out of this trip?
Klee, that was an easy one. An outgoing and rambunctious kid like her probably wanted to see Sayu most of all, as well as anything she could use to make explosives. The blonde had an affinity for lizards, and Inazuma was home to the Pith lizard. It was blue, which would definitely catch her eye. Looking in places where lizards were found would be a good start.
Diona, she was a bit more tricky. The young bartender hated Diluc with all her might. It was unfortunate, she hated him because of his affiliation with the city’s wine industry, but Diluc himself hated alcohol.
Diona often declared that she would bring down Dawn Winery with her masterpiece disgusting cocktail, but everything she made only attracted more customers. In a new foreign country, she would want more exotic ingredients. He didn't bother thinking about this from a business standpoint, this was a pseudo-vacation.
Ingredients native to Inazuma would likely include sakura blossoms, lavender melons, naku weed, and seagrass. According to Lumine, sakura blossoms were found near the Sacred Sakura, floating in clumps due to Electro energy. Lavender melons, for some god-forsaken reason, grew on trees just about anywhere. Naku weed was found in highly electrified places, and seagrass was found in the sea.
The winery owner knew nothing about Qiqi, other than the fact that she hated the heat, which really didn't do him much good in this situation.
One of the few coherent sentences that Diluc was able to decipher from Paimon was that Sayu worked around the Sacred Sakura.
“I guess the Sacred Sakura is where I should start my search.”
Luckily the Sacred Sakura was easy to find, in fact, you couldn't miss it. The thing was insanely huge, and it's petals were everywhere. Unfortunately he didn't have his bird to help search for them. This would take a while. The traveler was nice enough to lend him their map, so at least he wasn't wandering around blindly in a dangerous foreign country. Paimon told Diluc about how a lady named Kamisato Ayaka said she had a way of finding Sayu quickly, and that is just what he needed to do. If he found Sayu, he had no doubt that he would find the others.
It was only a short walk from the beach to a little town called Kinda Village. There were no signs of fires or explosions, so if Klee had come through here at least she wasn't causing any mayhem.
The town was mainly populated with the elderly and a few young children, like Liyue’s Qingce.
“Excuse me ma’am?” He asked an old woman who was sitting in the sun on a rocking chair.
“Hello sir, welcome to Konda village. Do you need something?” She asked, not getting up from her chair.
“I was wondering if you have seen a group of little girls pass through here? One has a cat’s tail and the other wears red.”
“Sorry dear, I've been sleeping the morning away. You could try asking some of the children, they're much more observant than these ol’ eyes.” The woman pointed towards a little boy who was running around in someone's garden.
“Thank you.”
Talking to kids and the elderly was much better than talking to drunk middle-aged men and women.
“Hello Mr outlander!” The little boy exclaimed cheerily, yikes, the closing of the country must not have been fun for the kids of Inazuma.
“Hello. Have you seen a group of girls around your age pass through here recently?”
“Hmmm…” the kid put his hand on his chin, dramatically scrunching up his face. “Were they outlanders too?”
“Yes.”
“I didn't see anyone, but I heard the grownups talking about someone who wore red running through the countryside…”
‘A lead, finally.’
“Do you know who said that?” He asked.
“Nope, I dunno. Sorry Mr. outlander.”
Well there goes that. At least he knew they got to Inazuma Safley, Diluc tried to look on the bright side for once in his life.
As Diluc continued to follow the path to Inazuma City he was jumped by a gang of thieves.
“Hand over your Mora and we’ll let you go!” One of the bandits demanded, pointing a large blade at his face.
Diluc’s face remained blank and unamused. Another bandit repeated the demand, but it wasn't very threatening with his large straw hat falling in front of his eyes.
Giving people Mora wasn't Diluc’s issue. The winery tycoon had plenty of Mora, but crude criminals didn't deserve any. ‘Go get a job like everyone else.’ He thought, blissfully unaware of Inazuma's horrible job market.
A few more bandits ran up to the group, covered in scratches and burns.
“What happened to you guys?” The leader, at least Diluc assumed he was the leader based on his extremely tall hat, asked.
“Sorry boss, we tried to mug some kids but one of ‘em had bombs!”
“Bombs? Why would a kid have bombs?”
“I don't fucking know, but they took the rest of our loot too!” As the two argued about this very strange situation, Diluc was able to calmly walk away without any trouble. They had come from the direction of the forest, which just so happened to be the direction of the Kamisato Estate.
One walk through a very creepy forest later and Diluc was at the front gate of the Kamisato Estate.
A random foreigner asking to speak with the lady of the clan would be extremely suspicious. If he wanted Miss Ayaka’s help he would have to be strategic about this. The redhead paced back and forth, carefully thinking about his options when suddenly he heard a scream.
A scream that sounded much too familiar.
‘Archon’s sake, is that Klee?’
Diluc sprinted towards the sound of the scream, hoping that it was an excited scream instead of a scream for help.
Of course nothing could come easily to him. Before he could see why Klee, or her doppelgänger, was screaming, he had to jump down a fucking cliff. In case that was a scream for help? Diluc didn't have time to find a safer way down.
If he were like his brother, Kaeya, he would gladly jump off the cliff to make a cooler entrance. Diluc was not like his brother, though. So what could've been seen as a dramatic performance was nothing more than an inconvenience to him.
The Dawn Knight, who wasn't in any way affiliated with the Knights of Favonius, swung his claymore and leaped off the cliff. He plunged bravely into the sandy beach which, admittedly, did feel pretty cool.
“Gah! Where did you come from?!” Another familiar voice spat.
Diluc put away his claymore and turned to see the four little girls that had quickly become the bane of his existence.
“Mister Weird Grown-up! Hi!” Klee squealed in delight. Diona, on the other hand, did not seem happy about the man’s surprise arrival.
“Hello.” The tiny zombie chimed in. When he looked at their new friend Sayu, she appeared to be asleep.
‘I wish I could have a nap right now.’
“Ugh. Where did you come from?!” Diona scowled at him with her hands on her hips and feline ears pressed down.
“I came to find you three. Everyone is worried about you.” He stated. It was very hard to not come across as angry to the kids.
“We wanted to see Sayu!” Klee explained with adorable puppy-dog eyes. Too bad for Klee, Venti had tried that same tactic in the bar many times so Diluc was immune to it. He remained stone-faced as usual.
“I know, but you can't run off without telling anyone.”
“They wouldn't let us go if we told them!”
“Does this mean we have to go home now?” Qiqi asked with the most heart-wrenchingly sad voice Diluc had ever heard.
‘Be strong. Don't give in. You have to tell them no.’
“Fine. You can stay for a little, but I'm coming with you.”
‘Shit.’
-
A tiny hand tugged at Diluc’s sleeve. “Yes?” He asked the little zombie child who was trying to get his attention.
“Can we stop? I'm tired.” Qiqi asked. The soft spoken girl was in large contrast to Klee. She had been jumping up and down nonstop ever since they left the Kamisato estate. Diona was walking beside her, head held high. Sayu was also around here… somewhere. She had been rolling around in a ball of Anemo.
“We can stop when we find a place to rest.”
Sayu then popped out of nowhere. “Rest? Yay.”
‘Is she still tired?’ Diluc wondered.
“That tree over there looks nice. Nice grass, not too sunny.”
“You really know the best places for a nap, don't you Sayu?” Diona looked over her shoulder to the little ninja.
“Mhm. I have to be ready to sleep anywhere if I want to grow taller.”
Diluc wasn't sure of the logic behind that, but oh well. “Okay Qiqi, we're going to stop here.” The undead child nodded sleepily in response, following the group to the tree.
“Goodnight…” Sayu climbed to the top of the tree and fell asleep almost as soon as her eyes shut.
Qiqi pointed timidly at his leg, “Can I sleep here?” She asked, to which Diluc nodded his head.
Klee was running around the tree, trying to catch a little purple butterfly, and Diona was sitting on the ground with her arms crossed.
“Klee, do you want to rest too?”
“Nope!” The Spark Knight replied cheerily, “I'm not sleepy!” It was only ten minutes later when Klee decided that she was, in fact, sleepy.
Diona kept glaring at Diluc, and it was unnerving. The feeling of being watched was creepy, but coming from a little kid? It was just embarrassing.
“Diona? Is something wrong?” He finally asked her.
“Of course! You're what's wrong! Everything is your fault!”
Diluc couldn't help but frown, “I'm sorry. I know you don't like me, is there anything I could do to make it up to you?”
“No! No no no! You're the worst! Everything is your fault! Just- just go away!”
‘Now those are some words that bring back memories.’ The last time the red-haired man had heard those words from someone other than Diona, he was just a kid. Kaeya would say that to him whenever they fought as kids, probably not much older than Diona’s age now.
“I'm sorry.” Lumine told him that Diona doesn't hate him, but she hates wine. It was hard to believe, this little girl seemed to hate him very much.
“Wh- what? How am I supposed to hate you when you apologize? That isn't how this works!”
“Oh? How is it supposed to work?”
Diona thought for a long moment before giving Diluc a very dramatic sigh. “I don't know.”
“Oh… okay.” Seriously, what was he supposed to do right now? How can he reconcile with a kid who he doesn't even know anything about?
“Stupid Dawn Winery. . Stupid alcohol. I bet you just can't wait till you get back home so you can drink more of that stupid wine and get drunk!” Diona flicked her tail back and forth while she pouted.
“I don't like alcohol, actually.” The offhand comment made the girl’s furry ears perk up.
“You don't?”
It was so sad to see this young girl’s words riddled with skepticism. Did she have to deal with alcoholics at such a young age? No kid deserved that shit, and Diluc would know. Drunk people are the worst kinds of people, and he had a whole list of examples just off the top of his head.
“No, I don't.”
“Huh?! Then why do you own a winery?!” She screeched in disbelief, completing the look with her eyes wide open in shock.
“It was my father's. I took over for him.”
“It was your dads? Why did you take over?”
‘Oh shit. Well, how old is Diona? 10? 12? That's old enough to know what death is… right?”
“He… passed away.”
“Oh- uh, sorry…” The girl froze up for a moment. “I guess I understand… my daddy became a hunter because his dad was a hunter.”
‘Crisis avoided. Dear lord, I don't need to scar these children for life.’
“Your dad is a hunter? What does he hunt?” Diluc was willing to indulge in small talk, just this once. It sure beat talking about death.
“All sorts of things. Boars, fish, cranes, ducks, squirrels, foxes… he's really good at it too, when he isn't drunk.”
‘Shit, emotions.’ Diluc silently cursed his limited understanding of feelings. Though she tried to bury her face in her knees, he could see tears in Diona’s blue eyes. What was he supposed to say to a crying kid? Sure, her anger was a bit misdirected, but Diluc could see why he was her target.
“I can see that you care about him a lot.” Diluc felt like he was walking on eggshells. Maybe Kaeya was right when he said that these kids would eat Diluc alive.
“Of course I do! I love him, he's my dad. It’s not his fault that he goes out and doesn't come back for a while, or that he isn't there to say goodnight to me… it's the stupid alcohol’s fault!” Tears began to fall from the young bartender’s cheeks and Diluc wanted nothing more than to wipe them away. Such a young kid didn't deserve this. No one did.
“I'm sure he loves you very much.”
She sighed again, “Mhm. That's what everyone says, and… I know he loves me. Sometimes... it's hard to believe though.” A few tears turned into full-on sobs. “I just wish he would try a little harder…” Diluc had heard similar words from Nimrod's wife, Eury.
Diona insisted that she wasn't upset, though her face said otherwise.
Diluc turned his attention to the sleeping zombie on his lap. Her face was as expressionless as ever, even while asleep. Her tiny body rose and fell with every breath. How could someone like Qiqi be breathing in the first place? Who knows.
Beidou’s ship would be leaving for Liyue Harbour tomorrow morning. The original plan was to leave as soon as the children were found, but the Darknight Hero had given into the girl’s requests. Beidou didn't have a problem with delaying the trip anyway, so that was good.
That thought would have to be put on hold, though. The fire-haired man heard the uniquely garbled cackle of an Abyss Mage.
“These scoundrels insist on bothering me in Inazuma as well? How annoying.” He scooted the sleeping Qiqi off of his lap gently, careful not to wake her. “Diona, I’ll be right back. Do not move.” He instructed the girl as a claymore materialized in his hands. He ran in the direction of the noise without looking back.
There was a small ledge, the grassy overhang shading the sandy beach below. Diluc once again plunged his sword into the ground as he gracefully fell, only to be met with a very unpleasant surprise.
“You've got to be shitting me.”
This Abyss Mage was purple , meaning that it was Electro. At least it matched Inazuma’s theme, but were three of these element-wielding heathens not enough?!
A purple shield encased the deformed creature, it continued to laugh, taunting it’s foe.
“Time for retribution!” He shouted.
Diluc’s battle-cry was drowned out by the sound of large, fiery wings flapping in the air. The flaming bird scorched the mage’s shield and pressed it against the wall before vanishing. In that short period of time, he had closed the gap between him and the vile Abyss Mage, who’s shield he now battered with strikes from his Pyro-infused greatsword.
A jolt of electricity surged through him, sending him flying into the shallow water.
The Electro-charged water momentarily stunned Diluc, but as he lay on his back in the sand, an icy cat-shaped shield encased his body.
Once he sat up, to his horror, he saw exactly what he was afraid of.
A rolling ball of fire, tailed by Klee, crashed into the Abyss Mage with a bright explosion of Overload and swirling Anemo.
“Opening box of Adepti tricks…” Qiqi whispered as Cryo energy attacked the now defenseless mage. Diluc watched as Klee threw countless bombs at the pitiful creature and Diona shot it with icy arrows from above.
It let out a sad, pathetic shriek as it finally died, dissolving into nothingness.
“Woo! That was super fun!” Klee had the biggest smile on her face.
“That was a lot of work… I'm tired.” Sayu yawned, somehow still sleepy.
“Diona, I told you to stay by the tree.” Diluc’s voice was firm, looking down at the four of them with disappointment.
Honestly, what they pulled off was remarkable, and in such a short time too, but he couldn't tell them that.
“We're sorry.” Qiqi didn't look up from a purple crab that was walking across the sand nearby.
“You could've been in danger, we basically just saved your life!” Diona huffed, crossing her arms for tbethe drama. “You should be grateful!”
A small smile must've crept its way onto Diluc’s face, because Klee was very excited. “Mr Weird Grown-up, I mean- Mister Diluc! You're smiling!” Klee eagerly pointed up at his face, “You should smile more often, you look way less grumpy like this!”
His smile widened, grabbing the energetic girl’s hand in his own. “I can try. Now, as a thank you for ‘saving me’ let's go find some food.”
“Food!!” Klee hopped up and down.
“Yummy. I want cocogoat milk, please.” Qiqi chimed in. Sayu nodded sleepily, not even opening her eyes to thank the redheaded man.
“That's more like it!” Diona declared with a voice of triumph, “let's go!”
The young bartender grabbed Diluc’s other hand with a smile, pulling him along. Klee gladly followed, and so did Qiqi and Sayu, who both seemed happy as well.
‘If this is what getting 'eaten alive’ by kids is like, it's really not that bad.’