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Now, in all fairness, Kujou Sara has had a rough day, alright? A rough week, really.
…fine. A shit week.
Of course, there had always been that whole deal with the vision hunt decree. Not fun. She didn’t like it. She never enjoyed it. But all those emotions were put under lock and key, for the sake of carrying out the Shogun’s will.
Now that the decree has been lifted, however, those same emotions are crashing through her defenses.
Not to mention the sudden radio silence from the Shogun, the shift in power within Tenryou, and the betrayal of her father-
Nope. Not going there.
But still, there is a lack of guidance. For all of her merits as a general in the Shogun’s army, she does not know what values are hers and what values are of those around her - doesn’t know, and may never know - and with the sudden removal of these influences in her life, she is left floundering in the political seas of Inazuma.
So forgive her for being the slightest bit annoyed when that oni shows up in the middle of Hanamizaka, chatting with Kiminami Anna like the Tenryou Commission isn’t currently calling for his arrest.
In a flash, her bow is out.
The effect is instantaneous - every citizen walking in the streets backs away. The Tengu general is no one to mess with; better to stay low and out of sight.
“Arataki Itto.” Sara’s voice has a sharp edge to it. “You are hereby under arrest for the terrorization of Inazuma, the desecration of the Statue of the Thousand-Eyed God, and breaking and entering. Come quietly,” she nocks an arrow, albeit not yet raising her bow, “and there will be no problems.”
To her irritation, the man in front of her merely grins. “So it looks like the Tengu warrior herself has decided to show up! How about it?” The oni summons his claymore and hefts it over his shoulders. “Care to have that rematch we agreed upon?”
Sara is not in the mood for that smug grin. “Come quietly,” she repeats slowly, gritting her teeth, “and we will have no problems.”
That surprises him. She knows. For all that they were on opposite sides, even prior to the vision hunt decree (the fight draining from Itto’s eyes as his geo vision was ripped away and she stood there, stood there, did nothing and was too late-), they had been rivals. The Hanamizaka Hero and the Shogun’s right hand - their rivalry was the symbol of connection between royalty and common people. She should’ve known that he wouldn’t have just dismissed her behaviour as an off day.
Itto frowns. “Is something the matter? The vision hunt decree has been repealed. I merely decided to help the Tenryou commission in its duty to return the visions to their rightful owners.”
“The Tenryou commission does not need your help, and manages quite well without it.” Kujou Sara’s eyes blaze with something she is sure Arataki Itto can decipher. “Do not meddle.”
Leave me alone.
Itto narrows his eyes. Sara glares right back.
Finally, the oni rolls his eyes. “Whatever you say.”
Sara tries her best to pretend that she doesn’t wish that Itto would not turn his back on her that easily (like everyone else).
“Hit me up on that rematch anytime you want!” Itto calls out, refraining from acknowledging her with more than a wave, even turned away.
Sara lets her bow disappear in a flurry of particles and stalks away. “Preposterous.” She hisses.
It only really occurs to her hours later, when she is sitting in her study and trying to manage the Tenryou commission’s affairs even with the political strife, that she realizes that she never followed up on her threat of arrest.
Sara sighs as she stares at yet another document marked in bright red. She can deal with that troublesome “hero” later.
~
Kujou Sara is staring at a letter sealed with the Sangonomiya crest. She has no idea how she should feel.
“I, uh.” Gorou scratches his head. “Her Excellency wanted this delivered to you. It’s no demands or anything, don’t worry…” his eyes trail over to the piles of documents obscuring her desk, and Sara scowls. She does not need the pity of a general on the opposite side of a war.
(But she had wanted to join them.)
“I will do fine.” Kujou Sara says stiffly. “Do you not have other matters to attend to?”
“Well I do, but.” Gorou sighs. “I guess I wanted to ask you. Like… why did you do it?”
“Do what?”
“You know… the vision hunt decree.” The Kitsune gestures. “You knew it was wrong. I could see it in your eyes from every battle we fought - you had doubts. Why didn’t you trust them?”
So the Watatsumi General is more perceptive than I thought.
“It was the Almighty Shogun’s will.” Sara replies monotonously. “All personal doubts may not be allowed to influence decisions of the divine.”
Gorou’s ears twitch. “That’s not healthy, General.”
“I will manage fine.” Sara places the Sangonomiya envelope on top of the pile to be reviewed. “Now, if you do not have any other inquiries, I must ask you to leave.”
There is a look in his eyes that she cannot decipher. “Sara-”
“Please leave.”
Gorou says nothing as he walks out the door, closing it behind him.
When the door clicks shut, Sara puts her head in her hands.
~
“Heyyyyyyy Sara! So, do you want to-”
“I am busy, Arataki.”
~
Masakatsu is bleeding on the floor of his cell.
In front of her, a strange blond woman and that Naganohara girl are staring, caught red handed. She regards them - she is quite impressed that they have gotten this far.
Sara nods to them. “Go. He needs medical attention.”
The blond Traveler says nothing as she comes forward to collect the limp body, and Yoimiya looks thankful. But Sara cannot control her body as her hands draw her bow and she lets an arrow loose, the projectile embedding itself firmly in Yoimiya’s back as she falls forward with a scream-
~
Kujou Sara’s eyes snap open, her heart racing as she tries to discern reality and dreamscape. She shuts her eyes again, leaning further into her desk.
Breathe.
She is okay. She listened to her conscience. Yoimiya is alive and safe and not on the run. Masakatsu is not rotting in the prison. Everything is okay.
She cannot convince herself of that fact.
The summer festival is today, isn’t it? Sara tries to think rationally. Yoimiya is probably putting together fireworks. She’ll be there when they set off.
Yes. I can make sure for myself when the festival is underway.
A part of her protests - she still has much work to do, and ever since she has lost the respect of half the Tenryou Commission, it felt like the entirety of Inazuma was trying to make things hard for her. But… surely she could take a day off. Surely.
Before she can convince herself otherwise, Kujou Sara pushes herself out of her chair and walks out, blinking at the bright lights filling the streets. Though it is the evening, Inazuma feels brighter than ever.
Kujou Sara has never been to a festival.
She tries her best to ignore the looks of the crowd as she moves in the general direction of everyone else. It seems that they’re making their way to Amakane Island.
(She has never been to Amakane Island.)
Her height gives her an advantage, but it is still hard. She looks around, panicking against common sense that maybe she had been wrong, maybe she really did kill her childhood friend even if they lost contact even before the Vision Hunt Decree and everything she did wrong and there was no going back and there would be no fireworks, no light this year that the Inazumans loved so dearly despite being citizens of the nation of eternity no more no more no-
“Sara!”
The Tengu warrior startles upon seeing Yoimiya’s cheerful wave, beckoning her over to where she is currently sitting.
Kujou Sara tries to stop the flush that creeps up her face. She worried for nothing. Yoimiya is right here - safe, alive, safe - and she is as bright as ever, like the flames she holds control over with her own blessing from the gods.
Sara swallows dryly. She can’t find it in herself to look at Yoimiya in the eye. “Madam Naganohara…”
“Now where did that come from? We’re friends, remember?” Yoimiya chides, pulling her down to sit on the blanket she spread out. “Stay! I don’t even recall you being in a festival. What compelled you this time?”
Kujou Sara does not answer.
Yoimiya shrugs. “Or don’t answer, that’s okay. You don’t owe me anything.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Yoimiya waves the apology off. “I never lost it in the end, right? Everything worked out. And you were just following what you believed in, after all.” The fireworks maker winks at her. “I don’t think anyone should be punished for that, right?”
As if on cue, the first firework goes off with a bang.
On their own accord, Kujou Sara’s eyes turn themselves towards the illuminated sky.
And
And-
She can’t find it in herself to scorn such a transient thing anymore.
Kujou Sara turns back to Yoimiya and sees only a woman who has never cared for anything but happiness of herself and those around her, and she wonders how she can be so carefree.
~
“Hey! Madam Kujou! About that spar-”
“ Leave, Arataki.”
~
“General Kujou.”
“Priestess Sangonomiya.”
There is poorly concealed amusement twinkling in the strategist’s eyes. “Oh, no need for that. Please, just call me Kokomi.”
“Then I would be remiss in my courtesy.” Kujou Sara inclines her head. “But if you insist, then call me Sara.”
“Sara…” Kokomi muses. “A wonderful name. Say, would you like to take a walk with me?”
Sara blinks. “The matters of trade-”
“-can wait another day, when we are not walking around Watatsumi as friends.” The Tengu watches as the lady of the sea brings her hand up to meet a translucent fish seemingly made of water, twirling around her wrist.
Kujou stares impassively. Kokomi raises an eyebrow.
Sara sighs. “Fine.”
“Great!” Kokomi claps her hands together. “Now that that’s out of the way, we can talk about your emotional incompetence freely.”
Kujou Sara stills. “I’m sorry. What?”
“You know exactly what I mean, Sara.” The strategist continues to watch her fish idly, as if she didn’t plan this - this entire conversation - from the start. “The suppression of your emotions. You’re holding a fort from which you cannot escape.”
“I do not know what you are talking about.”
You do, a small voice whispers. Liar. Traitor. Murderer.
“You can lie to others, but you can’t lie to yourself.” Kokomi says. “Don’t do this to yourself. You can’t-”
“Shut up.” Sara whispers.
“You can’t keep this up. It’ll come back to bite you later, and when it does, it won’t be pretty. I assure you-”
“Shut up, shut up, shut UP!” Kujou Sara shouts, her crow wings flashing on her back for a brief second. “You don’t know anything!”
“A strategist must learn to read people, even if it’s only through letters.” Kokomi replies, infuriatingly calm. “Sara-”
“ Don’t. ”
“Sara, genuinely, you need support-”
“I think this meeting is done. ” The General says abruptly, clenching her fists to refrain from attacking the Sangonomiya Clan. “Good day, priestess.”
Kujou Sara turns away and runs, running and running until her breaths are laboured and she can no longer see Kokomi’s straight, self-assured and unwavering form in the distance.
(How she wishes she could be like her.)
~
“Sara! So-”
“If you want a fucking duel, then come get it! ” Sara snaps, at her wits end from the earlier meeting and shooting targets on the Tenryou training grounds.
Itto frowns. “Is everything alright?”
Liar. Traitor. Murderer.
“Everything is just fine, thank you.” Sara grits her teeth, pointing her bow at him. “Let’s just get this over with.”
The oni still does not look convinced, but he brings his claymore up anyway as he pounces, charging forth with a yell and geo energy.
This first strike is one that the Tengu dodges nimbly. She has no intention to lose today - she is already in a terrible mood, and Archons forbid what may happen to the training grounds if she must be subject to Itto’s gloating.
Liar. Traitor. Murderer.
Leaping behind him, Sara fires an arrow, one that gets blocked by Itto’s wide claymore. He retaliates with a sequence of swings, one that Sara barely manages to interrupt with a well-placed shot of electro.
Liar. Traitor. Murderer.
(Dimly, in the back recesses of her mind, Sara notices that she is being more reckless than usual.)
There is an indecipherable look on Itto’s face. Sara pushes forward, losing arrow after arrow after arrow - but none hit, and she wonders what she is doing wrong, what is she doing wrong, and gets more and more frustrated until her emotions are boiling over and she is no longer attacking out of strategy but rage and rage and-
Liar. Traitor. Murderer. Liar. Traitor. Murderer. Liar-
“Are you sure you’re alright?”
“ I don’t need your concern!” Kujou Sara roars, and Itto only barely manages to dash away, with wide eyes, from the Koukou Sendou that is called down in response to the explosion of her emotions.
The oni can’t find it in himself to counter with his own elemental burst, nor say any other teasing remarks as the Tengu continues.
“I don’t need you to ask after my being when I am doing fine! I don’t need people who don’t fucking know what’s going on to offer their support! ” Sara’s voice cracks as she lets loose each of her projectiles in tandem with the words she screams, like they’re being wrenched and pulled out of her very being.
“I don’t need people to pity me like I need it! I don’t need the fucking general of the other side of the fucking war we just fought to tell me that his superior is worried! ”
Sara’s vision is blurry.
She can’t remember the last time she cried.
“I don’t need the people who I have wronged to treat me well, like I deserve it! I DON’T! ”
Kujou Sara reaches for another arrow, and finds her quiver empty.
She can’t tell if the water on her cheeks are the tears of her eyes or the tears of the sky.
“ I don’t need your help. ” She whispers, small and tired and so very broken that Itto can’t help but feel his own heart break for her - for a young lady whose entire world has just been upended by the betrayal of her two closest mentors, a betrayal to everything she had ever known.
“Sara…” Itto walks forward, dismissing his weapon with a wave. The Tengu warrior shakes her head fervently, dropping her bow, but that doesn’t stop him from wrapping his arms around her, like she’s another one of those hungry children in Hanamizaka that Itto can never resist giving food to.
Sara buries her face into his shoulder and does nothing but cry, both her heart and the sky flooding with grief as the fort she had been holding finally breaks apart.
~
It is the jagged edges of her grief that compel her to visit Narukami Shrine.
Yae looks at her with surprise, though she does not stop in her task of sorting out a few of her hair ornaments. “Oh? The general of the Tenryou commission herself. I do hope you’re not here to arrest a criminal this time.”
Kujou Sara hums in affirmation. “Nothing like that. I came to ask a favour of you, Guuji Yae, if you are willing to hear it:”
Yae hums. “Speak.”
“Can you take me to visit the Raiden Shogun?”
The priestess’ hands still.
“You mean Ei.”
“The Traveler told me… many things.” Kujou Sara answers carefully.
To her relief, Yae laughs. “Of course. Everything always ties back to them, doesn’t it? But yes, I can.”
Yae says nothing else. Sara looks at her incredulously.
When Yae catches her eye again, she stares. “What is it?”
“That easy?” Kujou Sara asks in disbelief.
Yae rolls her eyes. “You’re looking for answers, right? I think you deserve them.”
The Tengu warrior looks down.
Yae sighs, closing her jewellery box and turning around to face Sara entirely. Her tone seems softer. “Kujou Sara. I have seen many Tengu warriors in the centuries I have lived. Countless others like you, loyal to a fault, giving themselves entirely to Eternal Thunder.” Yae looks away, and Sara thinks that she has never looked as old as she has now. “I’ve seen them die with no regrets, but die with unanswered questions. I’ve seen them replaced. I’ve seen them driven to madness.”
Yae cups Kujou Sara’s cheek in her hand, and it feels too tender to be the sharp and witty priestess that the General is used to. “You do not deserve the same fate.”
“Guuji Yae…”
Yae Miko smiles at her, and it feels full of warmth instead of calculated expression. “Let’s go pay a visit to the Statue, shall we?”
~
Kujou Sara stands alone on a plane of sand and ruins. The sky is red. The symbol of the Eternal Lightning is etched in the ground.
The Tengu Warrior dares to look up and meet the eyes of a god for whom she has devoted her entire life to. To someone who has commanded her very being for years, providing no needed explanation for her actions.
Raiden Ei comes down from her meditative pose.
Kujou Sara feels her wings shuffle behind her.
The archon tilts her head. “I’ve heard much about you.”