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Calamity was near , the stars foretold.
The sea was roaring with fierce violet strikes. Endless storms and merciless downpours robbed the lives of the land. Inazuma was in peril for invoking the wrath of its God.
Which god was it? Kunikuzushi did not know.
The one thing he heard was the ugly screech breaching the palace walls; an animosity with no destination; and so they pinned everything on him.
A convenient scapegoat.
"Offer the prince to the Sea God!"
He's abandoned by the Shogun after all.
"It's a great honor for him to serve the country!"
At least he could be of some use.
He shut his eyes and ears from the babbles of the foolish mass as he was walking to have an audience with the Shogun.
Like sacrificing a man could silence a natural disaster.
The sovereign did not agree with him.
His eyes and ears were shut, hands and legs were tied. He was drifting on the wooden boat into the eye of the storm.
His creator completely forsaken him without batting an eye.
As his tears submerged into the droplets of the raging water, his body sank into the depth of the bottomless abyss. The cold sea embraced him in darkness.
He could only choke in bitterness as silence accompanied his journey to another realm.
Goodbye, worthless dross. There was no value to a defective.
He closed his eyes in despondency, but—
Mystical light shone through the dark veil of water, reaching him and his hand stretched out for the sliver of salvation.
He saw the bright sea of stars.
Illuminated in the center of the moonlight was a picturesque, blindingly beautiful presence; one not of this world.
The Moon Goddess took his outstretched hand.
Kunikuzushi worshipped no god—
but he allowed one exception.
It was a night forever carved in his hollow heart.
・・・━━━☂★━━━・・・
Kunikuzushi shot up on the bed, hands frantically touching his own body and face. Everything was intact.
He's still alive. How?
"Good morning, sleepyhead."
His head turned to the source of the smooth voice. A pair of jade-green and strands as dark as the midnight sky greeted his delirious eyes.
Who?
The memory of the dreadful night overtook his senses with coldness spreading all over his skin. He was abandoned, left to die for an idiotic reason in the cold and dark water.
He took another look at the enigmatic presence occupying the same space as him.
She was wearing a dark dress embroidered with glitters. The silken fabric draped her like the starry sky reflected on the ocean surface. On top of her head perched a big hat with golden threads and a locket of glowing ocean blue.
Her attire resembled the picture books from faraway lands; one that told a world of magic and divine beings.
It was under the daylight but he could see the moon shining on her and the stars twinkling around her.
She was blindingly beautiful.
The Moon Goddess. His savior.
"It's okay to start revering me."
"What?"
"No worry, that's the normal reaction when you are graced by a divine beauty."
Scratch the thing about goddess or savior . He would continue being an atheist.
"Where am I? Why am I still alive? Where did you find me? Is this afterlife?" He bombarded her with questions.
"Duh, obviously I saved you," she replied with a huff. "Human sacrifice again? Foolish are your people, Raiden Kunikuzushi. It’s just a big typhoon approaching."
"You- are you the God of the Sea?"
"Nope. You happened to stumble upon my realm; the portal I use to stargaze at that sea."
He was supposed to be alerted, body going into fight or flight mode at this unknown danger. There was no concrete evidence to back her claims. A mysterious being capable of sorcery, a truly dangerous creature.
However, in her company, he felt calmer than ever, safer than being guarded by his imperial elites.
Even if she's the devil, he would trust her.
" What are you?" He asked, wanting to be closer to her.
She noticed his tumultuous emotion and the conclusion he reached at the end. She smirked; satisfaction painted her beautiful features.
The enigma drew a starry sky above her head, a literal starry sky . She proclaimed with a mesmerizing voice.
"The Observer of Fate, tasked with the responsibility to oversee the mortals aligning to their predetermined course."
She took three steps closer to him. The slight breeze brought her scent to his nose, the scent of the night.
"I have many names: Fate, Destiny, Red String, Inevitable, Irreversible, Unchangeable—"
She gathered the stars in her palm and offered them to him. "Or just simply Mona."
He accepted them and the stars dissolved into gold-speckled dust in his hand. He absentmindedly clenched his palm to gather the scattered shiny dust.
"Mona," he chanted her name. It felt like committing a taboo to call a divine presence without honorifics.
She smiled at him; a genuine smile with no trace of fakeness; unlike anything he'd seen his whole life.
"Now, get out of my home, leech."
・・・━━━☂★━━━・・・
If he were to single out a word for the month that had just passed, it would be catastrophic .
Despite being a transcendent being, she partook in meals and oftentimes forgot about it, too absorbed in her own readings.
Despite being a transcendent being, she was a penny-pincher and oftentimes had no coins left, too indulged in her own enjoyment.
She was a breathing mess; if immortals could be classified as living.
"Outta the way, witch," he snatched the blanket from her and she rolled on the bed.
"I told you I'm not a witch!" She grumbled, rubbing the sleep away from her eyes.
"Try again when you have thrown out that devil glass," he folded the blanket and brought it with him to the balcony.
"It's called a telescope, primitive," she huffed and yawned. "Really shouldn't have saved and taken you as my servant. The greatest mistake of the great astrologist," she started her own drama.
“Apprentice,” he corrected her.
She had wanted to throw him out after the rescue.
It’s not abandonment if you're not my possession in the first place.
I'm your possession since you scooped me out of the sea.
The witch reluctantly complied with his demand; more like he bullied her and annoyed her to no end that she yielded in the end.
The witch’s apprentice hung the blanket on the balcony, for it to be aired by the sunshine. He glanced inside to the woman who was sitting at the dining table, gobbling up the breakfast he had prepared.
What a ridiculous scene, for an imperial prince to be reduced to a housekeeper role. Then again, he was never expected to fill the prince role. Then again, he was a prince no more for he abandoned that name.
"Scara," she called him; with the name she picked for him (randomly from a nearby book). "The soup is cold."
"Wake up earlier, then." He took the seat across from her and held his chopsticks.
Cooking and eating with someone were things he had never experienced in his life at the imperial palace.
"Last night's sky was too beautiful! Primitives could never understand," she puffed her cheeks and stealthily extended her fork.
Scaramouche blocked her from stealing his egg roll; he made a perfect one today so he would not yield.
"That's what you say every night," he rebuked her.
She offered him a sheepish smile; one he gladly received as his payment.
・・・━━━☂★━━━・・・
"Running an errand for Mona again, Scara?"
"I'm but a helpless apprentice to a tyrannical witch. Don't worry about me and focus on your recovery, grandma."
"Stop that two-faced act, you ungrateful gremlin!" Her voice was distant but loud and clear. Her angry stomp echoed loud and clear before she arrived. “And here is your potion, grandma.”
For some unknown reasons, the witch liked to mingle with the common folks. She would frequently descend from her realm to visit nearby villages.
Aren't you supposed to just oversee them aligning to their fate?
That's what I'm doing?
Scaramouche did not believe she understood her assignment.
She claimed to be the Observer of Fate, but she was doing more than just observing. She extended her knowledge to help the helpless civilians; brewing potions, foretelling disaster, advising planting season, assisting in harvest, joining the village's festivals, generally just being a busybody.
Genuine act of kindness; one he never witnessed before.
Curiously, the people’s gratitude also extended to him, despite not contributing anything. It was foreign at first, to be surrounded by people with no ulterior motives. In times, with more errands he ran for the star-obsessed witch, his walls began to crumble as he would indulge in pleasant conversations with the people.
It might be the first time his heart functioned the way it’s supposed to.
Alas, for every time spent, the thread of fate would entangle more and more; which became the reason she could not stay in one place for long. Her rule was to move to a new area every year. Being the busybody that she was, she always shed tears during farewell, knowing very well it would be her last meeting with these mortals.
Even after accompanying her several moves, he still could not understand her. If there was a risk of her breaching the rule of the universe, she should just stay away.
Doing this much won't change anything, y'know. It's a predetermined course so no one can defy their fate. It's a predetermined course so everything will ultimately converge back.
It would soon be the time for their next move.
What about my fate?
Well, it mattered not; as long as she brought him with her.
・・・━━━☂★━━━・・・
Her beloved stars painted the night sky with more colors than usual. The milky ways stretched as far as his eyes could take in. The cool summer breeze blew gently between them, spurring her to clutch her blanket tighter, eyes still focused on the glitters on the sky.
“I still don’t get how there is wind and night sky in your artificial realm,” he stated.
“Stop nitpicking my realm,” she rebuked.
“Also, isn’t your job to read and record what the stars form? Are you slacking off?”
“It’s fine,” she swatted the man sitting next to her. “Today’s the day where Hikoboshi and Orihime meet, right?” She stretched one hand out of the blanket to reach the sky. “It’s not raining so I should oversee their meeting, right?”
He hummed.
He was the one who told her about Inazuman folk tales, of two lovers separated by the milky way, only to meet once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month.
At first, when he pointed to the only constellations he knew, she argued that they were called Altair and Vega, then babbled about the Summer Triangle. She immediately shut up when she listened to the sad story of two star-crossed lovers.
Well, we’re in Inazuma right now. Hikoboshi and Orihime, they are.
This would be their last stop in Inazuma, as she had stayed in this land of eternity for almost a century.
Yikes, old hag.
Watch your mouth, pleb.
Their next stop would be Mondstadt, the land of freedom, faraway land that he only read in books. It never crossed his mind that he would have the opportunity to breathe in the wind that carried dandelions, and, probably, called it his last resting place.
The witch would spend another century in the land of windmills, overseeing the mortals there frolicking and doing stupid things; still loved nevertheless by the immortal moon watching over them.
A length of time he could not dream of reaching.
“Do you believe in the afterlife? in reincarnation?” she suddenly asked.
He turned his face to look at her jade-green orbs that twinkle with the stars. “You are the sovereign of fate, you should know better.”
She clicked her tongue. “How uncute.”
She curled into a ball with her blanket and rested her head on his shoulder. He instantly froze up and was overly aware of the warmth spreading from his shoulder.
“And how many times do I need to tell you? I’m just an observer.” He could see her pout even without looking.
He chuckled. “If there is reincarnation, I should pray to be an abandoned prince again.”
She rose up quickly, her blanket falling to the floor, and he missed her warmth already.
“Why?” The concern in her tone was crystal clear.
“So you would save me again,” he answered, looking straight at her. “And again, and again, and again.”
We would meet again, and again, and again, each time, without fail, just like Hikoboshi and Orihime for the rest of eternity.
He just silenced the Moon, robbed her out of her rich glossary of immortality. The witch opened her mouth, only for silence to come out. Letting out a content sigh, she picked up her blanket and returned to her position next to him.
“I should charge you,” she warned him.
He nodded, “Go ahead, name your price.”
She taught him a lot of things. Funny it was for him to learn how to be a human from an immortal. With her, he experienced a myriad of new feelings and carved an array of unforgettable memories in his pathetic mortal life span.
He wished for his time to align with hers, but they both knew it was impossible.
“Witch? Are you listening?” he asked when he got silence as his only response.
When he looked to his shoulder, his Moon Goddess was comfortably asleep, her chest heaving lightly and her lashes fluttering with each soft breath.
“Who said she wanted to watch over the lovers' meeting until morning came?” he chuckled.
He lowered her head gently to his lap and adjusted the blanket to cover her new position. His hand landed on her soft strands as he admired how the beauty rivaled even the milky way.
He knew their time together amounted to nothing but a side corner in her long life. A measly mortal life span was like a blink of her jade-green eyes.
At least, they could enjoy each other’s company while they’re together.
・・・━━━☂★━━━・・・
The time they’ve spent together was a measly five years.
Even for a mortal’s standard, that was only 1/14 of the normal lifespan.
It was too short.
“Hey, witch! Talk to me!” he had never sounded so frantic for another person before. The witch was coughing blood in his arms, lying helplessly with ragged breath.
He turned his animosity to the being of light across. “How dare you!” he shouted, murderous intent on full force.
“The Observer of Fate broke the worst taboo. She meddled with the fate of a mortal.” The being of light stretched his hand where a ball of light converged.
The ball of light spelt danger, Scaramouche knew instinctively. However, the monotone statement by the mysterious being caught him at a standstill.
“Aether!” she shouted with her bloodied lungs.
“Raiden Kunikuzushi’s fate was to die as the human sacrifice in that sea, but she saved and bestowed a new name unto you,” Aether continued his explanation.
“Aether!” She shot him with a ball of water that he blocked with ease.
“Thus, you are now a being unordained by fate, a being without a predetermined course, an anomaly birthed by the error of the Observer of Fate.”
“What?” he glanced at the woman in his arms, who refused to look back.
“Sovereign of Fate! It’s only me you want, right? Don’t touch him!” Mona broke free of his hold. She instantaneously conjured a cage of water around him.
“Wait,” Scaramouche banged on the water but it wouldn’t budge. “What are you doing?”
“I shall now exact punishment to the faulty Observer of Fate,” The Sovereign of Fate declared.
“Shit- What the fu- Hey, witch, don’t you dare-” Scaramouche couldn’t form any complete sentence as his brain was having difficulties processing what’s happening.
“Scara,” she called him with that sweet voice of hers and it silenced him completely.
Her back was what he saw. Her lustrous black locks swayed with the light breeze of the realm.
“From the day you stumbled upon my realm, the stars I’ve seen sparkle brighter. You were a gift to me from the universe, even if fate disagreed with me.”
Today was supposed to be the first day they moved to Mondstadt. Today was supposed to be the first day he stepped out of his birthplace. Today was supposed to be the first day of another year spent stargazing and eating together.
“That’s why-”
“I will fight the gods… for you.”
“I will oppose fate… for you.”
She turned her face slightly so he could see her beautiful smile for the last time.
“May we meet again, someday.”
The light fell upon her as she perished into shimmering stardust.
The water barrier broke down and he scrambled on his feet to reach the spot where she last stood. His hands helplessly gathered the scattered gold-speckled dust that escaped his grasp no matter how hard he tried.
“Severed the Observer of Fate’s from this universe. She shall appear no more. A new one shall replace her role soon,” he stated in his monotonous tone.
“Mo-Mona?” his lips called the divine.
But, she was no more. The Sovereign of Fate erased her existence.
Scaramouche felt numb. His world had gone dark, like the day he was drowning in the cold water. Cold sweat and tears permeated from his glands as he wept for the loss of his goddess. He wanted to see her jade-green glow once more, to see her star-trickled midnight locks once more, to see her gorgeous smile once more.
Near his feet, a single keepsake from her remained, unscathed by the perishing light. With a trembling hand, he reached the dull locket, which once glowed a brilliant shade of ocean blue; the same color as her water sorcery where stars swim.
“I shall now purge the anomaly of fate,” the Sovereign of Fate’s attention now focused on him with another concentrated light of obliteration in his hand.
Oh, how he despised fate with its rigid rules and oppressive decree. Who were they to dictate that they could not be together? Who were they to separate her from him?
His dark blue eyes pierced straight at the golden glowing orbs in front of him.
“The observer released me from fate. I am now an existence above fate.”
The locket in his hand glowed not in the familiar ocean blue, but a violent violet like the thunderstorm where he was cast to the sea.
Fate took my forever .
Electro crackled from the heavens into his hand as he deflected the concentrated golden light from the opposing side with ease.
He cracked his neck to challenge the power in front of him.
“I am free to spend the remainder of my time so I shall be the Challenger of Fate.”
Surprise painted the face of the divine being in front of him. It sure was a delight to know the otherworldly being could feel something, could sense the danger that had just emerged from sorrow.
The worthless dross received the blessings of thunder deity.
He would continue to challenge fate until it answered his questions.
Why did she need to perish?
The mortal managed to immortalize his existence as the one to wreak havoc at important points of mankind’s history.
Until the end of his time, fate had not given him his answer yet.
Nevertheless, he would still be the Challenger of Fate.
Nevertheless, he still believed for the day they would be reunited again.
He would be waiting for his forever even beyond this universe.
・・・━━━☂★━━━・・・
･ ｡
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･ﾟ*｡★･
･ *ﾟ｡ *
･ ﾟ*｡･ﾟ★｡
☆ﾟ･｡°*. ﾟ
* ﾟ｡·*･｡ ﾟ*
"Sounds interesting… Mind if I join you?"
The girl disappeared into the sea of stars.
Their story has not ended yet.
ﾟ *.｡☆｡★ ･
* ☆ ｡･ﾟ*.｡
* ★ ﾟ･｡ * ｡
･ ﾟ☆ ｡