Work Text:
“Shogun.”
“Yes, little bird?”
Sara shifted in place to look up at the person she was reclining on. Even in the dimness she could make out that pair of deep and soulful eyes.
“Why me?”
“Why...you?” The Shogun replied quizzically.
Sara glanced down bashfully. “You are the mightiest and most illustrious being in the whole of Inazuma. You could have any of the other gods or divine creatures as your lover. Why choose a mortal like me...whose life is naught but a flicker in the grand span of Eternity?”
“Would the reason that I simply love you not be sufficient enough of an answer?”
“I...I-” Sara fell silent. “I’m sorry my lord. I do not profess to know a God’s feelings.”
Raiden sighed. “Not even a God is exempt from a fundamental force such as love.
But your understanding of Eternity is limited. Mortal flesh erodes with time, but love stays. It persists; finds a way, connected by the casual chain that makes past, present, and future one. Death cannot destroy it, only displace it. Once it is willed into existence, it becomes a permanent, unchanging part of the universe. Love transcends generations.
And as a result, love is also Eternity’s long suffering companion. Do you understand what I mean to say?”
“I’m...not sure I do my lord,” replied Sara cautiously.
Raiden let out another sigh, softer this time. “Then if that is the case, do not trouble yourself over such matters beyond your comprehension, little bird. What matters is that I love you, and that you are worthy of my love.”
The Shogun leaned in and kissed the Tengu general on the forehead, before bringing her in for an embrace.
“I love you, my lord.” Sara muttered as sleep overcame her.
“Rest. Save your strength for day ahead.”
The two lay with each other for a preciously long moment, with Sara unconscious on Raiden's breast, and with Raiden staring emptily out into the sterile night sky.
Still evenings like these were indistinguishable from the next to the Shogun. She had numbed herself to the procession of time, assigning herself to the flat and circular plane of cognition that was the nigh and unchanging Eternity.
Tonight, however, she could not help but ruminate. Remember. Perhaps her inner world had become so barren that it naturally sought out its former imaginative vitality. That was an unfortunate consequence of the path she had sought for herself, and for her people.
But for some reason her thoughts were especially quarrelsome tonight. She felt the tendrils of the past slowly invading her tranquil realm, threatening to fill that empty space with bygone memories and emotions. Raiden once again sensed herself teetering on the edge of all those base and earthly passions: joy, sorrow, fury, heartbreak.
Fine, she thought to herself. Just this once. Then no more.
Steadying her breath, Raiden closed her eyes and let her mind take her where it wished to go.
Yellow eyes-
Blinking from sweat, struggling to remain open. Raiden unwrapped the last of the blood-soaked bandages and began to apply a nearby vial of scented oil onto her palms.
"Where does it hurt?"
"My...chest..." Sara muttered through gritted teeth.
There was a large unseemly purple bruise right below the Tengu's right breast. Not wasting any time, Raiden pressed her oil-drenched palm to the affected area. Sara winced upon contact.
"Shogun, there is...no need...I don't-"
"Quiet."
Raiden's stern command ended Sara's protests immediately. Pressing down harder on the bruise, the Shogun began to rub vigorously, despite Sara's gasps of pain. The latter struggled to remain conscious, determinedly looking up at Raiden throughout the whole ordeal.
Even in a moment like this, she's still trying to prove her tenacity, Raiden thought to herself. Just like her.
Sara let out a gasp of relief once Raiden was finished, although she tried her best to suppress it. Acting quickly, the Shogun applied a fresh set of bandages around Sara's chest, before swiftly wringing a wet cloth and placing it on her forehead. "You have a fever," cautioned Raiden. "Do your best to recover. Do not move an inch from this bed or I will call upon thunder from all corners of the world to smite you down. Understand?"
Sara nodded weakly. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but decided against it. Raiden stared over her resting figure intensely for a good moment, before standing to leave.
"Rest well."
"Wait-"
The Tengu general grabbed her hand suddenly. The Shogun spun around to look at her. "What is it?" she spoke with a hint of harshness in her voice.
Abashedly, Sara struggled for a moment to find her words, tears welling up in her bright yellow eyes.
"Shogun...I failed...you, I'm sorry...I-" Sara trailed off, for fear of breaking into a sob if she continued further.
"Stop." Fury rose in Raiden's voice. "There is a difference between bravery and foolhardiness. If you had pushed into enemy lines any further, you would have died."
"But I-"
"Think for just a moment general. Your death would do me no favours."
"Shogun, I-"
"Would you have me suffer another loss AGAIN!?"
Stunned into silence, Sara swallowed her sobs into a low uncontrollable murmur. Surprised at her own sudden outburst as well, the Shogun looked away in shame.
"I...I am sorry. You did not deserve that."
"Shogun..."
Raiden turned her back towards Sara before the latter could see the tears streaming down her cheeks. "Don't risk your life like that in the future."
As Raiden walked briskly out of the chamber, she could not help but be reminded of images from another stormier past.
My beloved Sara...if only you knew how those yellow eyes of yours-
"Remind me once more," Raiden started.
"What is your name?"
The short-haired Tengu knelt before the Shogun, never once looking away from the floor. "Kujou Sara, my lord."
"So you are the Kujou clan's adopted daughter?"
"That is correct my lord."
Raiden walked leisurely past the kneeling figure, stopping briefly only to tap the latter on their shoulder. "Rise."
With a shudder, Sara immediately leapt to her feet, her face a flustered red. "Yes my lord."
Raiden allowed herself a grim half-smile. "Tengu. Do you know the purpose of my summons?"
Sara's posture stiffened at the mention of her kind. "N-no, I do not, my lord."
By this time Raiden had walked half a circle around Sara's back, and was beginning to stroll into view. "At ease. I did not call you here to punish you."
"I just want to...get to know you better."
"My lord...?" Sara's face was awash with confusion.
"You have made quite a name for yourself, ever since you landed in the care of the Kujou household," began Raiden. "My generals speak of an orphan girl skilled in the ways of the sword and arrow, outmatching her peers effortlessly at every step."
"They overestimate my abilities, my lord." Sara replied cautiously.
"Even if that may be so, no one can deny that you are a person of great potential. I like to keep an eye on those who might be invaluable to me in the future."
"Y-yes my lord."
Raiden studied Sara for a few more moments before nodding slightly in satisfaction. "That is all. You are dismissed."
Sara continued to stand there however, a look of unease on her face.
"What is the matter? Still have something to say?"
"I...I-" Sara begun to fidget on the spot. "If...if I may be so bold, your excellency...and please do not take this the wrong way-"
"Spit it out." commanded Raiden.
Sara gulped, her face turning a deep red. "It's just that...well, your excellency..." She suddenly prostrated herself on the floor.
"I implore you, please impart to me the ways of your swordsmanship!"
Raiden let out a laugh. "You do realise that my sword art was not made for mortals, correct?"
Sara did not get up from the floor. "Your excellency...I want to be the best swordmaster in the entirety of Inazuma, so that I can protect my clan," she hesitated.
"So that I can protect the Shogun."
"And so you want to learn from the best."
"Yes, your excellency."
"Interesting..." The Shogun considered her words for what felt like an eternity to Sara. Eventually, she spoke.
"Very well, I will let you indulge my curiosity. Show up to the sparring grounds behind the palace before dawn tomorrow, and I will teach you what I can."
"But I must warn you, I am a very strict teacher. I will not tolerate weakness of any kind."
Sara looked up in joyous relief for a moment before realising that she had broken decorum, and quickly looked back down. "Thank you, my lord!"
Raiden dismissed Sara with a wave of her hand. "Go. Get some rest before tomorrow begins."
As Sara hurriedly exited the chamber, a spontaneous desire formed at the edge of Raiden's mind. She wondered out loud:
"In all my time as Shogun, not one of my generals had made such a daring request of me before."
This stopped the exiting Tengu in her tracks. She timidly glanced back at the Shogun with those bright yellow eyes. "My lord?"
Raiden smiled to herself. "All except-
"Sasayuri!"
Raiden shouted through the bellowing mist and fog, the waves rising up as if to intercept her voice.
"Sasayuri!" She leapt across the ruined battlefield, nimbly avoiding wisps of corruption that fled from the dead serpent god's carcass.
"Sasayuri!" She called and called until her throat hurt from the exertion, until she had reached the broken and bloodied body of her friend.
Sasayuri was slowly fading away - her chest bearing a deep bulbous laceration from where the serpent god had struck her. The Shogun worriedly swept away the flakes of blood and messy strands of hair from her face. The Tengu general looked dazed; as if in a trance, but her yellow eyes lit up with hope as she recognised the person in front of her.
"Shogun..." She struggled to speak. "You...you must forget me."
"No, General! I cannot afford to lose you!"
Thunder struck overhead as the first beads of rain began to fall. Sasayuri looked upon the Shogun with a pitiful countenance. "This is the fate of mortals," she whispered through intermittent coughs of blood. "I...I am sorry I cannot be with you any longer..."
"Sasayuri..." Raiden held her face to the Tengu's in a tight embrace. "I...I refuse to forget you. I refuse to let you go."
"Ei..." Sasayuri murmured shakily. "Ei...I love you."
"I love you too!" replied Raiden frantically, holding Sasayuri closer.
"That...that is why you must release me..." Sasayuri teared up as she fought to stay conscious. "Don't...hold this pain in your heart forever..."
"NEVER!" The Shogun screamed amidst a stream of choked sobs.
"Promise...promise me..."
Sasayuri only managed those last words before she let out her final gasp of air, her body falling limp in the Raiden Shogun's hands.
The drumming of raindrops became the only sound. Raiden cradled her former friend gingerly in her arms, never tearing her gaze away from that tranquil face that was once so full of life and love.
She felt nothing at first. Numb. She was like a primitive being, only capable of sensing the external while thinking of nothing inside. Then it all came at once: shock, disbelief, sorrow, anger, guilt, grief. Sasayuri was lost to her, forever. Visions of a solitary eternity greeted her in flashes. She would no longer go on leisurely strolls with her, have nightly meals with her, or wash their feet in the river together. What had once felt so real, so immutable, had in an instant lost all of its luster, now a hollowed-out shell; a mockery of life and all that contained within it.
And with the loss of Sasayuri's soul, Raiden felt a part of her fading away as well.
"Sasayuri, my love..." Raiden tilted her friend's head up and kissed her one last time on the forehead. "I will-
"Never forget,"
Raiden motioned for the man in armor to follow her. Kujou Takayuki hurriedly kept up by her side as she surveyed the estate.
"That the Kujou clan are not only the leaders, but also the representatives of the Tenryou commission. It is crucial that your soldiers are fit to serve and protect the people of Inazuma."
The Shogun's attention was directed towards sounds of shouting in the adjacent courtyard.
"The nation is about to face tumultuous times in the near future. See that your men will be ready when the time comes."
The head of the Kujou clan bowed in acknowledgement. "Yes, your excellency."
The two of them arrived at the entrance of a spacious walled courtyard. Through it Raiden could see a diminutive figure practicing feverishly with a wooden sword.
"Who is that?"
'Your excellency, pay her no heed," replied the Kujou clansman anxiously. "She is just an orphan girl I adopted a few months ago."
"An orphan girl?" To Takayuki's alarm, Raiden suddenly strode into the courtyard - in the direction of the orphan girl that was still oblivious to her presence.
Seeing her approach, the orphan girl stopped her practice and stared curiously at the arrival of the well-dressed stranger. If she could hear Takayuki's panicked commands through gritted teeth to bow and show respect, she did not show it.
Raiden walked up to the girl and, without a word, put her hand on her shoulder to adjust her sword form. Satisfied, the Shogun stepped back and motioned for the girl to continue.
With her newfound stability and balance, the girl was able to slice the training dummy's head cleanly off its shoulders. She looked back at Raiden in amazement.
"Well done," the Shogun remarked. The girl's bright yellow eyes seemed to shine in the sunlight.
Feeling an old wound of the heart open up slightly, she placed her hand on the girl's head and gave her messy hair a rustle.
"What is your name, little girl?"
The girl looked to Takayuki nervously before opening her mouth to speak.
"Kujou-
"Sara."
"My lord."
Raiden blinked the exhaustion out from her eyes and glanced around the room. When had it become morning?
Sara was looking expectantly at her, as if waiting for a response. Raiden paused. Had she been muttering phrases while in her trance?
"I...Good morning, Sasayuri."
"Good morning, my lord. Who is Sasayuri?"
Sasyuri was dead. The Tengu that now stood in front of her is Sara.
How could she forget?
"I misspoke, pay it no heed."
"Alright, your excellency. I'll be off then."
Sara turned around to leave.
"Off? Off to where?"
"To survey potential resistance hideouts on Ritou," replied Sara quizzically. "Just like we planned yesterday."
Yesterday....
A few thousand yesterdays ago Sasayuri would still have been at my side.
"Right. Dismissed then." Raiden tried to brush away the remnants of a dull ache that was beginning to form within her. A phantom longing for a time no longer accessible.
"Promise...promise me that you will be careful."
"I will!" Sara called back faintly as she quickly left the chamber.
"Promise-!"
But the Tengu general was too far away to respond.
Raiden sighed inwardly. She stared for a long while at the ajar door where Sara had left in a hurry.
The deafening silence was broken only by the cacophonous thoughts in her head.
Sasayuri...
Forgive me, but I have broken my promise to you.
I tried my best to forget you, and for a time I was successful.
But then you came back...why?
Is this divine punishment for all that I have wronged you in the past?
Or...or is this fate's second chance...
For me to protect you in this life, since I couldn't in the previous one?
For you to love me in this life, since you couldn't in the previous one?
Sara...you may never come to understand it all.
But as long as I love you, I will continue to hold this sadness in my heart.
For the entire breadth of Eternity.
This, I promise to you.
The Raiden Shogun was uncharacteristically silent that day, according to those that spoke with her. She later ordered her guards to lock down her palace for the next month, allowing no visitors except for her general Kujou Sara.