Chapter Text
The beautiful prince of Inazuma, the son and heir of the almighty shogun. has always felt something was wrong inside of him, he isn't very sure if it was the monotony of palace life or if it was something else . But something gnaws within his non existent heart. Could it be an aching emptiness within? A buzzing desire for something new? He isn't sure . And the strange dreams aren't helping either, should dreams always feel so real?
"You..?"
Ei is taken aback, she stands in her Tenshukaku
In front of her was the creation who she left to his own devices . The fragile doll she sealed to sleep in the Shakkei Pavillion. The son who once stole a heart for himself
"You ... Your name is Kunikuzushi. You chose it for yourself "
"I chose my own name?"
The traveller brought him here almost immediately through waypoint, having not the slightest clue what to do after a certain Fatui Harbinger violently tore out the gnosis from within this doll's chest.
The former 6th Harbinger was ushered off to be given new clothing, seeing as the one he currently wears has a hole where the heart would be. He doesn't even seem to notice his own tattered clothes.
The traveller thankfully explained;
Kunikuzushi woke up as if newly born. As if he just woke up in that tomb within the Shakkei Pavillion once more, unable to answer where he was, who he was, and without memory of all that happened within the past hundreds of years.
All he knew was that he was made by the shogun and asked to sleep. Where he dreamed— could dolls even dream?
"Well! Whatever happened. Paimon thinks it's a good idea to bring him here. After all he WAS your creation . Maybe you could... tinker around with him a bit! Fix his memory problems or something "
"Would he even want those memories back?" The traveller asks a very good question. The 6th harbinger, Scaramouche, had quite the reputation for sadism and was despised among the Fatui. Before that; he sought to destroy all raiden gokaden from his grief and vengeance. Kunikuzushi was a deeply unhappy man who longed for a heart. And when he got it , it wasn't what he needed.
"Either way. WE can't keep him and he needs somewhere to stay. Otherwise the Fatui might... ugh Paimon doesn't even wanna think about what the fatui might do to him"
"He may be the balladeer but... he's still a person. It would be cruel to kill him"
"He came about as a byproduct of creating the Shogun. Perhaps it's because I feel like I owe him something, but I do not wish to assert control over him. "
"We know that you made him. But you won't be controlling him. You'll just have to care for him for a bit, isn't that the duty of a creator to their creation? The duty of a mother to her son?" The traveller shrugs " Honestly it's probably gonna be easy, he was so docile and quiet back in Sumeru it was kind of scary"
The duty of a creator to her creation ...
Ei had created him as a prototype , a proof of concept , a mock up to perhaps house the gnosis once she inhabits the final product.
She won't kill him. Perhaps if she did when he was first brought into this world it would have been a greater mercy. but she didn't, she couldn't, how could she? She saw herself and Makoto in his sleeping form , and she couldn't bring herself to strike.
A mother to her son . . .
Could she even be called a mother? She certainly didn't play the role of a good mother. And back then, she never would have. But times have changed and Inazuma is at peace. With these new things , she decides to embrace her son with open arms like she failed to all those hundreds of years ago.
"I'll take him in as my son"
"YOU WILL!?" Paimon exclaims, very much shocked that she actually would
"If he is introduced as my son, the prince. The Fatui won't touch him. That was what you're worried about. Was it not?"
"I mean. . . "
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In the interior of the Tenshukaku , would be the castle's lord or lady and their family's residence.
For hundreds of years it's been unused, seeing as the shogun body has no need for food, drink or, rest . And well... she had no family but Makoto
Now it will be home to Kunikuzushi. Like her, he doesn't have human needs, but he needs a place to stay. She would have to teach him the manners of a nobleman too, organise a ceremony to introduce him as a prince. And she would have to tell Yae Miko who wouldn't be very happy with this decision .
She opens the door to the inner room where Kunikuzushi was given new clothing by a servant, clothing similar to hers but more suited to his smaller frame. Lilac and white with golden patterns sewn in. The servant must have noticed the resemblance. No matter, all those allowed entrance in the great interior of her home is sworn to secrecy of what goes on within
He waits for her in a rather bare room that is to be his. absorbed by a mirror, he touches the ends of his shortened hair
Kunikuzushi waits and wonders why his hair was short, when he went to sleep with it long , how he was all the way in Sumeru when he 'woke up'
He notices her reflection on the mirror and immediately turns to bow and greet the shogun
"Greetings to the almighty shogun "
"Kunikuzushi.. you are my son, i am your mother. You needn't bow, or speak so formally with me" She declares. seeing as this is one decision she made , to care for him, she will follow through despite the uncertainties .
"Mother..." he echoes , lifting himself off his knees. The doll takes it as a directive.
"Yes, i will be your mother. " she steps closer, slowly " from now on i will care for and raise you. Listen to your troubles and provide. Like a mother would" at least, that's what she thinks a mother does.
"I had the strangest dream when the traveller awoke me , but I can't seem to recall it. It was like... I woke up from a very long nightmare. Can creations like I even dare dream? Why was I so... far away?" He looks upwards at her, a tear running down his cheek for a dream he cannot remember, he doesn't even notice till she reaches for him. He twitches away ever so slightly, as if by instinct.
"Kunikuzushi, my son. You were made in a time of great grief and strife, i could not keep you here in the Tenshukaku." She caresses his cheek and her hand and the ends of his shortened hair , it was as long as hers when she had left him. "But that was hundreds of years ago. You're here now"
He remembers not a single thing after he woke up for the first time in Shakkei Pavillion according to the traveller, as if the loss of the gnosis sent him in a factory reset state. As if he was a blank sheet of paper once more, in fact. They mention he was weeping in his sleep when they got to him
Not unlike when he was first made
For now, Kunikuzushi , the creation— no , son of the shogun, is docile without memory of what he has done , who he was. But that is one thing the archon of Inazuma decides she will explain later on, when he has gotten used to life in the Tenshukaku. For now, he is simply her son.
A month later, a week long banquet and ceremony was held for a prince of Inazuma, a prince nobody even knew existed until the date of the event and invitations were released and announced.
Rumours and speculation arose when he made his appearance . But none could dispute his relation to their god, how could they when she claimed him as her child? A face fairer than most others, indigo hair not unlike the almighty shogun, eyes only a little duller in colour and thinner than hers. He was their archon's son.
Electro mitsudome on his clothes sure enough hand him the right and approval by their shogun. And the regal elegance in which he held himself despite holding onto her sleeve at some point
He was the prince
Prince Kunikuzushi.
The name of a weapon; destroyer of nations. What an ominous name…
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