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“Don’t be shy, Ei, come on.” Yae Miko waved Raiden Ei forward, and they both headed towards the village.
“Are you sure that this is a good idea?” If Miko didn’t know better, she would have thought that Ei looked a little worried. However, Miko did know better, and so she knew that Ei was very worried. Raiden Ei was a god, and yet she was scared of what common people thought of her. Something had changed since the Traveller came and uprooted everything, and whatever it was, it had made Ei question herself more than ever.
“Of course,” Miko drawled. “It’s an absolutely fantastic idea, since after all, I thought of it myself.”
“And you’re certain that the people of Watatsumi Island will reconnect with the rest of Inazuma if I went to them personally to make amends?” Ei glanced towards the houses in Bourou Village. Did they really want her to come meet them? She wasn’t sure, and she couldn’t be certain that Miko wasn’t hiding something from her.
“Well, one can’t be completely certain of anything, really.” Miko’s vague answer made Ei uneasy. “But trust me,” Miko added. “It will all work out fine.”
“Alright.” Ei nodded, and Miko gave a flourishing gesture once again towards the village, letting the god of Electro walk in front of her as they both headed there to meet the people.
As they approached Bourou Village, a young boy walked by them carrying a bucket, some of the water splashing out and onto the ground with each of his slow and teetering steps.
“Do you need some help with that, dear?” Yae Miko called out.
“No ma’am, I—“ The boy looked up at Miko and stared, cocking his head. “Are you- are you a shrine maiden? You look like a shrine maiden, but at the same time, you don’t look like you belong at Sangonomiya Shrine.”
“Why, yes I am a shrine maiden.” Miko chuckled. “I am in fact the head shrine maiden of the Grand Narukami Shrine on Narukami Island.”
“Narukami…” The boy’s eyes widened, and he glanced over at Miko’s companion for the first time. “It’s the Raiden Shogun! The Almighty—“ The boy put down his bucket of water as quickly as he could and leaned down in a bow.
“The Shogun? The Shogun is here?” The boy’s exclamation had alerted more than a fair share of villagers, and they gathered around to see the Raiden Shogun.
“What is she doing here? After the Vision Hunt Decree…” The words were a whisper but Ei heard them. Realization dawned on her, and she glared at Yae Miko, who gave a chuckle under her breath.
“I thought you said they wanted me to come here,” She hissed at Miko through her teeth, while still attempting to maintain a neutral look to the villagers.
“I have been known to be wrong at times,” Miko waved her off. And then she amended, “Well, not very often. But in the hundreds of years I’ve been alive, I’m sure it’s happened before.”
Ei sighed, and then turned towards the villagers. “Will you excuse us for a moment? I do have something to say to all of you, but it will have to wait a bit.”
“Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble!” Miko called as Ei dragged her away from the crowd.
“What was the real reason for you bringing me here?” Ei crossed her arms.
“What made you think I had some ulterior motive for—“ Miko stopped when she saw Ei’s expression. “Fine, I did have an ulterior motive for bringing you here.”
“Well, what is it?” Ei raised her eyebrows.
“Why don’t you try to make amends with the people of Watatsumi Island first, and then I’ll tell you all about it?”
Ei raised her eyebrows even higher.
“Okay, fine.” Miko sighed. “Come with me.”
Miko took Ei’s hand and led her back to the villagers, who were still standing nearby waiting for the Shogun to address them.
“Could anyone tell me where Kaneko Kiyoshi’s house is? We’ll get to you soon, I promise, but I would like someone to lead us to where he lives.”
“Uh, I can bring you to his home.” A woman stepped forward. “My name is Kazue. Kiyoshi lives next door to me.”
“Splendid.” Miko beamed.
“So this Kiyoshi person is why you wanted me to come here?” Ei asked. “I don’t quite understand why I needed to come, though.”
“Kaneko Kiyoshi wrote the first three volumes of I Can’t Believe Turning Into a Dragon Would Be This Fun, which has been the best selling series the Yae Publishing House has had in years. But then he suddenly stopped writing, and when we tried to contact him, he never responded.” Yae Miko sighed, and looked over at Ei.
“So where do I come in?” Ei asked, confused.
“Well, I thought that the Raiden Shogun coming to meet him would be enough of a push to get him to start writing again.”
“And that’s why you brought me to Watatsumi Island? Not because you truly wanted to mend the people’s relationship with the Shogunate?” Ei crossed her arms again.
“No no, that’s definitely something that should be done. But honestly, contrary to what I said before, I don’t think just the act of you coming here would be enough to mend things.” Miko shrugged.
Raiden Ei rolled her eyes and sighed. “You’re impossible, Miko.”
“And you love me for it,” Yae Miko said with a wink.
Ei shook her head, but didn’t try to hide the smile beginning to creep onto her face.
“Besides,” Miko said after a moment, “I wanted to spend more time with you. I missed you, Ei. For the hundreds of years you were hidden away in that Plane of Euthymia of yours, I missed seeing you.”
“I missed you too, Miko. It really had been so long, hadn’t it?”
“Yes, it had. Well, now…” Yae clapped her hands together as they reached the author’s house. “Back to business. Let’s get Yae Publishing House some new content, shall we?”