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“This is clearly a threat against the Almighty Shogun!” Kujou Sara stated, slamming her fist onto the table that a few of the higher ranking Tenryou Commission officials had gathered around. They had been sent a letter that morning which had raised a few alarm bells and they were now trying to figure out how to deal with it. Only four people had been able to make it and if Sara had to be honest she wasn’t expecting too much help from them. Next to her sat Kujou Masahito, the oldest of her two adoptive brothers, while she may have been the youngest in the family she felt like she was taking this situation much more seriously. Across from him sat Okawara Goemon, who claims to be the best swordsman in all of Inazuma, yet Sara knows that to be false and can think of several people who would be able to beat him with little to no problem. The fourth and final member of the commission who had decided to grace them, with his oh so lovely presence, was Shikanoin Heizou.
“I don’t think it’s quite that simple,” Heizou stated, tapping his nails against the table while resting his head in his right hand. No one in the room besides Sara seemed to be taking this seriously, either looking bored out of their minds, Heizou, or just seeming to not be paying attention or grasping the implications of the letter in its entirety, Goemon and Masahito.
Honestly Sara couldn’t say she expected more from Heizou, and she didn’t really know Goemon to tell if that was just how he acted, but she seriously expected more from her brother, adoptive or not.
“And what exactly makes you think that?” She asked, not even trying to hide the annoyed tone that her voice adopted.
“Well, I’m not saying it’s not serious, but it doesn’t exactly feel like a threat to the Shogun-”
“That is the Almighty Shogun to you Shikanoin!”
“-As I was saying. It feels more like a statement. Like someone saying, ‘We’re still here’. I highly doubt they’re going to do anything, especially right now.”
“How sure of that are you?” Masahito asked, trying to prevent an argument from starting as he saw Sara’s annoyance slowly turn into anger.
“Eh, like… 95% sure. It just feels dumb. I mean if they were going to try and act against the Shogun, why would they feel the need to send a letter to us? After all we are seen as her right hand, we would act if we deemed there was a threat.” He looked more bored now that he was explaining his thought process, instead of tapping incessantly on the table he was now drawing random shapes, staring at the table as he dragged his finger across the wood.
“He does raise a good point,” Goemon spoke up, leading to Sara sending him a sharp glare silently telling him to shut up.
“And with that 5% chance that you’re wrong?” Sara found herself forcing the question out through girt teeth.
“Well in that extremely slim chance, the Shogun is able to defend herself. So we really don’t need to worry. Assuming they are who I think they are, she's already dealt with someone much stronger than the ones who sent the letter.”
They sat there for a few minutes in silence. Nobody had anything else to add. As Goemon had previously said, Heizou had brought up some good points which he had only added to when he further explained himself to Sara’s questioning.
“How about we call it there. We can come back to this matter later on when everyone has had some time to calm down and think some more,” Masahito suggested. Goemon nodded in agreement and nearly immediately stood up and left the room. Sara let out one last irritated sigh before following after Goemon, her chair being pushed back more forcefully than it needed to be. Masahito couldn’t help but shake his head at her behaviour, before he left he spared a quick glance at Heizou who had yet to move away from the table. Although he did note that the young self-proclaimed detective was no longer staring at the wood, but instead at the letter that Sara had neglected to pick up and take with her once more. He knew deep down that he should probably take the paper with him before anyone else found it, or before Heizou decided to disappear for the next few days as he looked into the matter himself. He went to take the letter with him, but stopped himself deciding for once to trust that Heizou wouldn’t do the stupid and reckless thing. He also figured that if he left the detective with the letter that he would be able to figure something else out. Against his better judgement he went to the door still open from when the other two left and closed the door behind him. Leaving the young detective and the letter in a room with no one to act as supervision.
***
As soon as he heard the door click shut he reached forward to grab the letter that Sara had carelessly left behind. The actual ‘threat’ wasn’t interesting to him and he wasn’t going to look into the situation because of it. However Sara thought he was wrong, and he knew he was right. He also knew how much it would annoy her if he proved that he was right, plus it would save the commission some work later down the line and provide less stress overall for everyone. And it was because of those simple facts, and the motivation that was annoying Sara, that he looked over the letter once more.
Dear Tenryou Commission,
As the right hand to the Almighty Shogun, you are the group that fought for her, that killed for her. You helped to enforce the vision hunt decree. Therefore you can also be held liable, however we would like to offer up a partnership. You have proved that you are willing to work with someone other than the Shogun once before. This way would allow you to keep everyone happy and safe.
We will send further word later as for when and how we can communicate your decision.
There was no signature at the bottom of the letter. The contents of the letter itself were pretty basic, but at the same time it didn’t reveal anything. They either knew what they were doing, or someone else wrote the note for them. Well the other option would always be that they just got lucky and it was a coincidence that they hadn’t given anything away. He felt his fingers drumming against the table once more, zoning out too much to actually hear the dull, repetitive thumps.
Very few groups would want to offer up a partnership like this with the Tenryou Commission; they would not work against the Raiden Shogun again. Heizou had kept up on what had been happening during the vision hunt decree and what led to its abolishment, even though he had been busy with his own interests at the time. He had even ended up on Watatsumi Island during that time, and while the members of the resistance were definitely weary of him, when he explained some of the reasons as to why he was there they were polite enough to allow him to do what he needed to do.
He could rule out the resistance for multiple reasons and didn’t even feel the need to waste time thinking about them further. The Nobushi was his next thought, but even then he was aware that some of them were against the vision hunt decree, having heard their views several times while wandering. He hadn’t escaped the accusations and complaints because of the Tenryou Commission while he was doing his own work. Heizou was aware that because of his looks that people underestimate him and his abilities, which made dealing with the few Nobushi that were against him much easier.
The treasure hoarders were a plausible choice as to who sent the letter, but they tried to avoid the commission as much as possible. Heizou had once again met several treasure hoarders while working on cases. They weren’t too affected by the vision hunt decree and hadn’t seemed too bothered by what was happening. The treasure hoarders instead used the decree as a distraction to make their job easier. He couldn’t see them sending this letter as he thought back to his previous point of the Tenryou Commission being the right hand of the Shogun. It would make no sense for the treasure hoarders to send them the letter if they wanted to try and continue to steal and do their other jobs.
That only really left the Fatui, which if that was the case they didn’t need to worry. The Shogun had already dealt with one of the Harbingers. Although he couldn’t deny the fact that doing more research is always a help. He may have narrowed it down to the Fatui, but he had to admit that he had no clue as to what their motive may be. It wasn’t the most important thing in the world if he knew why they were trying to make a deal with them, but if he did know why the Fatui wanted to make the deal he would be able to say with certainty whether there was any threat towards the Shogun. It was with that thought that he stood up taking the letter with him.
One thing he was thankful for as he left the Tenryou Commission building was that no one would look for him if he just so happened to disappear for a few days as he looked into the matter as an informal investigation.
***
Finding a small gathering of Fatui members was harder than Heizou thought it would be. He hadn’t heard too much about where they usually gathered or his. But he has heard a few rumours about a small camp near the base of the shrine. He hadn’t gathered any more information than that, and with the walk to the base of the shrine already taking around four hours from the commission, he wasn’t exactly excited to try and find where the Fatui were stationed.
Overall it wasn’t all too hard to find the group, there was a campsite near some ruins that he couldn’t be bothered to try and recall the name of, it wasn’t important and he was more focused on the Fatui. It only just occurred to him that he hadn’t told anyone where he went or what he was doing, which he acknowledged could be a problem later down the line, but he wasn’t walking all the way back to the commission just to come back. And anyway he had no way of knowing if this group of Fatui members had any plans of moving and if they did he would have no idea where they would have relocated to. So overall it was just a lot more work that may not be needed. He didn’t intend to fight them, if he had to then he would, but came for a more peaceful conversation and to try and gather some useful information.
He slowly moved over to the group, they weren’t doing all too much, the first Fatui member that he saw was the Electrohammer Vanguard, he didn’t learn the names of the troops it wasn’t important in his mind. Now that he was here he realised that he didn’t actually have a plan for getting the information. He highly doubted that they would just talk, fighting may be the best course of action. It is always better to negotiate from a position of power, people are more likely to listen if they feel they have no other option. He figured that there were other Fatui members around, but as he moved to see the camp better he couldn’t see anyone else inhabiting the space.
He waited a few minutes to see if anyone else returned before moving in to talk to the stationed guard. He either didn’t notice the much smaller detective making his way over, or he just didn’t see him as enough of a threat to act. Heizou didn’t know how to take that, he was a detective for the Tenryou Commission and was one of the better ones, if he wasn’t the best, although it may just be a hobby of his, it still helped the Commission immensely.
“Hello there,” he greeted, trying his best to sound friendly. The Electrohammer member looked over to him for the first time since he had arrived.
“What do you want?” The guard asked, Heizou couldn’t place the emotion that was clearly present in his voice. He sounded annoyed and angry, yet at the same time neither of them matched and he sounded too calm. Well that wasn’t what he had come to learn about and he wasn’t really interested to begin with.
“I just have a few questions, it’s in relation to a case.” Most people, even treasure hoarders and Nobushi, were willing to talk if they didn’t feel threatened or if the case didn’t involve them. So long as he was placating he couldn’t think of any reason for the guard to become aggressive and try to fight.
“Case. What are you, a detective?” Heizou responded with a soft hum of agreement. “Who do you work with then? That Santan group, or whatever they’re called.” The Bantan Sango Detective Group, Heizou wanted to correct, but stopped himself.
“Not quite, but that’s not important-“
“What do you mean not important? I want to know who’s questioning me before I think about whether I'm going to respond.” The Fatui member looked over at him once more, stopping at his waist. Heizou was confused for a minute, before he remembered that he had his uniform coat tied there. The Fatui member didn’t wait any longer standing up, dragging his hammer off of the ground.
“We don’t have to get violent about this.” Heizou tried once more to appease the Fatui member.
“A little late for that. Why would you come here if you weren’t looking for a fight?”
“As I already said, I had a few questions in relation to a case-“ he slowly backed away, while his fighting style required him to be close to his enemies, he wanted to keep some distance for as long as possible. He spared a quick glance over to the hammer, knowing that being hit by it even once could cause him to lose. If the Fatui member infused it with electro it would take even less than one solid hit to have him on the floor. And he would like to avoid that for as long as possible.
He had his vision, he could use it to escape, but then he wouldn’t be able to get any information. The best thing he could try to do was diffuse the situation.
“What about if I told you about my case? Could we avoid violence then?” The Fatui member stopped for a second, still too close for Heizou's liking, but he couldn’t back up any more without making it look like he was trying to run. Which in all fairness was becoming more tempting.
“Well that would depend on if it involves us Fatui and how much information you already have.” So if his hunch was right there was little chance of him walking away without a fight. If he tried to leave without talking about the case then it would look like it involved the Fatui, even if he was wrong. All he could hope to do was explain what he knew and hope his hunch was wrong, which they rarely were. That normal point of pride wasn’t doing much to raise his confidence at being able to leave peacefully.
“So what case are you working on?” The taller guy asked, trying to push Heizou to answer after the detective had been silent for too long.
The only thing he could think of was to answer the question, but as vaguely as possible. He would mention the letter, but not the contents.
“Either early this morning or late last night a letter was delivered to the Tenryou Commission, I was asked to find out who sent it and if they posed a threat.” It wasn’t a complete lie, the first part of his statement was true, and Sara hadn’t made any mention of when the letter had been delivered, at least to his memory. His best guess was that it was early in the morning between guard shifts and when it was still dark enough to be hidden.
“Ah, that letter,” The Fatui member said, “What would you do if the Fatui did send it?”
“Well, my job says that I should alert the Tenryou Commission that you sent the letter. However, I could just say that I was unable to figure out who sent it.”
“You could, or we could just prevent you from leaving, therefore avoiding the risk of you reporting anything to the Tenryou Commission,” The Fatui member stalked forward, his hammer being a constant threat in Heizou’s mind, but he was more than aware of the fact that if the taller man manage to grab him that it would also be impossible for him to escape. Before he was able to react he felt a burst of something cold slam into his side, feeling liquid seep through his clothes and hearing a harsh laugh sound from the right of him, he knew that the Fatui’s partners had returned. It took all he had to not be knocked over by the burst of water, but he wasn’t able to react in time as the Electro Fatui sent a burst of electricity towards him. The water helped to conduct the second element, and he wasn’t able to stop the scream that was ripped from his throat. He may have been able to stay standing from the water blast, but he wasn't unable to prevent his body collapsing to the ground when the electricity hit him.
His muscles tensed too much for him to be able to do anything other than lay on the ground where he landed. He was able to turn his head so he was no longer laying face down in the now wet mud, and saw the second Fatui member walk up. The Hydrogunner Legionnaire member laughed once more at his situation, while the electro member walked up to him looking at him as if he was trying to figure something out. He reached out and grabbed Heizou’s hair, dragging him up and studying his face.
“I’m sure I’ve seen you somewhere before,” he stated as the second member walked over also studying his face. Heizou tried to pull away, to do anything, but his body hurt too much and didn’t want to listen to even the simplest of commands.
“I recognise him. He’s a so-called detective from the Tenryou Commission. No clue what his actual job is, but his name is Shikanoin Heizou. Or something like that, but it sounds right.” He was dropped into the mud once more landing face down, it took too much effort trying to drag his face out of the mud, but he wanted to make sure he could see what was happening around him.
“So what should we do with him?” The hydrogunner user asked. The Fatui, clad in purple, gave Heizou another look before responding.
“We should keep him with us. Letting him return to the Commission could be bad for us, plus if we keep him with us then we should be able to get some more information out of him,” He moved forward and Heizou didn’t realise what was happening until he felt the electric current coursing through his body once more. This time he wasn’t able to keep a grasp on his consciousness, his screams dissolved into nothingness and before he knew it he felt himself slip into darkness.
***
He regained consciousness several times, but was never able to do anything, his body still feeling heavy. He had spent some of the few minutes that he was awake trying to figure out what was going on. All he had managed to learn was that the Fatui members had tied him to the metal pole in the middle of their main tent. His brain felt too fuzzy to be able to piece things together. He knew that his initial hunch was right and that was what landed him in this situation. He was annoyed with himself that he didn’t think of the possibility of the rest of the group returning. During his stay with the Fatui members an Anemo Boxer had also returned to camp and had laughed at his situation, which was apparently a very normal thing for the Fatui to do. They kept walking around him, but they never actually did anything to hurt him, which given the previous threats was a little surprising to him. But he wasn’t going to push his luck and taunt them, although it was extremely tempting to see if they would accidentally give up any extra information when they were annoyed.
When he managed to regain consciousness and stay awake for more than a few minutes it was already quite dark out, he couldn’t remember the exact time that he had arrived at the camp, only that it was sometime past midday. He focused on trying to undo the rope tying him to the metal fixture, he could tell that they had removed his vision, and it was annoying that he couldn’t see where they had put it. It was probably in the other tent or it was in one of the crates, he didn’t even want to think about the possibility of one of them having it. He felt the rope around his wrists loosen and then fall away as he managed to fully undo the knot. Heizou grabbed the rope before it fell onto the floor and kept his hands in the same position, not giving away the fact that he had managed to free himself. It felt too easy and before he fully had a plan he wasn’t going to make this any harder then it had to be. They had removed his jitte, but he was able to see it resting on top of a nearby storage crate. If he could get to that it would be able to help him, but his vision would be the most useful tool he could recover.
He couldn’t hear any of the Fatui members walking around outside, or even their low conversations that they had previously been having. He couldn’t be certain without looking, but he was fairly sure they had left him alone. Of course if he did go and check and one of them was still there he would be revealing the fact that he had managed to untie his hands. But if he waited and they were gone he may waste his chance to escape.
After weighing up the pros and cons he moved. Peering around the side of the tent he saw that he was alone. He let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding before carefully moving to retrieve his jitte. He grabbed it and sheathed it once more in its normal place. Already feeling more comfortable knowing he had one other way to protect himself. While he may be skilled with martial arts he knew that without his vision he wouldn’t be able to do any major damage to the Fatui before they took him down again, even with his vision it still wasn’t a guarantee.
Starting with the box that his jitte rested upon he started to go through the crates in search of his vision. He knew what would happen if he left without it because of the vision hunt decree and he wanted to avoid that. He moved through the crates that were left at the camp and while searching the final crate he started to think of other possibilities as to where his vision was being kept. There could be another tent pitched somewhere else that acted as a storage area, in which case they could have discarded his vision there. Or one of them had kept it with them as a way to taunt him when he was awake.
He was so lost in thought that he didn’t realise when someone was coming up behind him, their footfalls muffled by the grass, their shadow disguised by the lack of light present in the camp to be properly casted over him. He was dragged out of his thoughts as his body was similarly dragged away from the crate. He felt his body hit the ground as his mind started to panic, the Electrohammer Vanguard stood over him, his hammer present by his side. The sadistic smile hinted to Heizou that he was in serious trouble unless he managed to get away.
He started to try and drag himself away from the towering Fatui member. The hammer user calmly stepped forward, slamming his foot on Heizou’s left leg, the smaller male couldn’t stop the hiss of pain that escaped as pain flared through his leg. It would be bruised, but if he could free himself he would still be able to move. He could ignore it so long as he focused on other things. Luckily for him the man gave him something else to focus on, unluckily for him it also removed any chance he had of escaping.
Out of the corner of his eye Heizou saw the hammer be lifted up and before he could dully register what was happening a scream ripped its way from him. Hundreds of small black dots blossomed in his vision effectively blinding him for a few seconds as unbearable pain spread from his leg. Without any hesitation the hammer was slammed into his lower right leg, the bones easily breaking under the pressure. Tears forced their way forward even as he tried to hold them back and act strong, his sore throat reminded him that it was probably too late for that. But it was easy enough for his brain to forget everything that had happened when for the third time that day his muscles tensed under the strong electric current being directed through his broken body.
No longer was he able to hold back the tears, now joined by the pained sobs as his body convulsed and he fought for consciousness, a battle he knew he would lose once again.
Before he fully lost the battle to stay awake, he felt himself being turned to he was laying on his front, before something snaked around his wrists. His exhausted brain supplied that it was probably rope as he felt it bite into his wrists as they were pulled together and held there by the course material. His leg screamed out once more as his ankles were bound together, as an insult the Fatui member also bound just above his knees. The restraints around his legs were completely unnecessary as even if Heizou won the battle to stay awake he wouldn’t be able to walk without causing himself severe pain or without his body just giving up on him through the pain.
Before he fully blacked out he felt himself being picked up and moved. Where to he didn’t know and couldn’t force himself awake any longer to find out their next destination.
***
When he next woke up he was forced to close his eyes and the lights above him caused them to sting with their intensity. Wait lights, where was he? The next thing he realised was that his leg didn’t hurt, which it should have been. His brain then picked up on other details like the fact that he was in a bed and was covered by a blanket. He wasn’t outside any more. Was this all some weird plan of the Fatui’s or had someone found him and helped him? He would have to wait to see someone for that to be answered. He hadn’t realised how tired he was until he felt himself slip once more into the cold grasp of sleep.
***
He let out a soft groan when he next woke up which must have alerted the person in the room that he was awake as he heard movement.
“Finally awake huh?” That sounded like Sara, so he had been rescued, that was good.
“You can sleep later, we need to talk,” Sara said as she grabbed Heizou’s arm. He forced his eyes to open, wincing slightly.
“Yeah?” He asked, his voice rough, probably from disuse he thought to himself.
“What the hell were you thinking? If it weren’t for that annoying brute Itto and his gang we probably wouldn’t have found you.”
“What?”
“They found you, well more like they saw the Fatui moving around suspiciously and went to have a look. It was because that girl, Kuki Shinobu, recognised you that they helped. They managed to recover your vision as well before you ask about it,” Sara filled him in, she didn’t tell him any more than that, but he figured that when he managed to escape what he was assuming the Tenryou Commissions medical ward he would have to go and thank the Arataki Gang. “So I’ll ask again, what the hell were you thinking?”
Heizou was silent for a minute, thinking how to respond while also trying to make sure that he would be able to speak, his throat hurt way too much for a full conversation.
“Getting information. The Fatui sent the letter. Doubt we have to worry.”
Sara looked at him for a minute as if she couldn’t believe what she had just heard. She let out an annoyed sigh and moved to the door as if to leave, but before she did he turned back to say something else.
“Well anyway you're on bedrest for the rest of the week. The healers did as much as they could but you’ll still be sore and tired for a while. Rest while you can because you’re going to have a lot of work to catch up on from this stupid stunt,” he couldn’t bring himself to respond, turning on his side and closed his eyes. He heard the door open and close before he was able to fall asleep again. This time he was able to rest without worry.
And anyway, he would find someway out of the boring work Sara had planned for him.