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The harbingers all had their own motives, Pierro knew this. At a moment's chance to achieve their own goals, the Jester knew that all of them would drop their harbinger title in an instant. Being a harbinger was simply a stepping stone in their own goals. But, at the same time they were all stepping stones for the Tsaritsa’s grand plan.
They all were selfish beings. Pierro knew what each and every one of them wanted to achieve and always kept that in mind while he played his game of chess with Celestia. Childe wanted to push his combat prowess to godly levels, Dottore could perform any experiment he wanted unlike how it had been under the Akademiya’s rule, and Pantalone wanted to conquer Teyvat’s economy. Yet, from the harbingers there were a rare few that did not have any goals centered on only themselves.
Take Signora for example, despite her haughty attitude and sneers and her heart buried in ice, her true reason for becoming the Crimson Witch of Flames had been one out of rage and sacrifice. She had pumped fire through her veins giving her extreme amounts of power to protect people by scorching monsters from the cataclysm to mere ashes, yet it also almost led her to the brink of death if the Fatui had not stepped in.
Pierro never thought that he would ever recruit another Harbinger who had a similar aspiration more for the people than her. That was until a few months ago; he had the Raiden Shogun to thank for that.
A mere human escaping the grips of an archon, especially the electro archon, had been something that was unheard of. Kaedehara Kazuha. Pierro remembered that name and set his immediate plans to recruiting the anemo user. As someone who already openly defied their own archon, he would be perfect Harbinger material.
Within a matter of a week, Pierro had already come into contact with the samurai, offering political safety and the title of harbinger along with the possibility of being able to light up his friend’s vision again. It was something that was probably elementary enough for Dottore to do without any problem.
Yet, unlike all of the other harbingers, Kazuha’s own motive for joining the Fatui was quite different. It was not for personal gain nor out of any sort of rage, but rather for his personal beliefs.
The newest harbinger had been added to their ranks, and instantly Pierro stationed him in the tumultuous land of eternity. For how stable the Raiden Shogun wanted to believe her nation was, it was the same as a teetering boat sailing along the stormy seas surrounding the nation.
The plan was a simple one, find and obtain the gnosis. Pierro had partnered Kazuha up with Signora for the job because of their likeness. Signora became a harbinger after the death of her lover under an absentee archon. Kazuha, after the death of his friend at the hands of a tyrannical archon. Yet they both longed to protect the people of this world. Signora wanted physical protection and Kazuha sought the people’s freedom.
Obtaining the gnosis had been an easy enough job, but it did not come without its sacrifices. Unexpectedly though, a purple haired wanderer had both thrown a wrench in and helped with their job. Kazuha obtained the gnosis from Yae Miko in exchange for the wanderer’s life. It had been something Kazuha regretted doing though. On the contrary, Signora had died at the hands of the Shogun after losing a duel before the throne. The Crimson Witch of Flames had finally been fully consumed and burned to ashes.
It was rumored that the wanderer had power that matched the Shogun and had the capacity to parry her strike.
Yet, as the vision hunt decree and the sakoku decree were abolished, Kazuha couldn’t help but feel that his dealings with the Fatui hadn’t actually helped the situation at all. It had been the mere wanderer that had opened the Shogun’s eyes and repealed all of her oppressive decrees.
Kazuha had already met with the strange man once before, but given the chance to meet him again, Kazuha would be sure to take it. Despite the Fatui’s orders for Kazuha to return with the gnosis back to Snezhnaya safely, he ignored Pierro’s call and stayed in Inazuma until he found the person he was looking for. Despite their incredible feats, it seemed that the wanderer had completely disappeared.
Kazuha approached Yae Miko who of course gave him wild goose chases until she let it slip that he had gone off with a certain pirate captain from Liyue named Beidou. Her ship, the Alcor, would be departing out of Inazuma’s harbor later that day carrying the wanderer who was named Kunikuzushi as Yae Miko had called him.
“Y’know I usually don’t let people board my ship this late, but this” Beidou jingled the hefty bag of mora that Kazuha offered her, “should be more than enough! Welcome aboard! Ehhh what should I call you?” Beidou never really kept tabs on the Fatui names.
“Just simply Kaede is fine” Kazuha replied softly, he never liked using his Fatui name. Although he had joined their ranks, he had only done so out of necessity and never really saw himself as one of them. He was sure the other harbingers thought the same of him. However, he rarely gave people his actual name since joining the Fatui ranks. ‘Kaede’ obviously derived from his clan name, but if people didn’t know his real identity then they wouldn’t be able to make the connection.
His original identity was long lost to those who didn’t know him prior. Kaedehara Kazuha had made waves across Teyvat and disappeared all in the same second. That was why he stayed away from the city during his time in Inazuma. All pictures of Kaedehara Kazuha had also been destroyed by the Fatui upon his acceptance as a harbinger.
Usually Beidou refrained from letting on people like the Fatui on to her ships because politics could get messy especially now that it was public that she had relations to Ninggaung, but ‘Kaede’ was the newest harbinger and was rather young for one. She didn’t sense any malicious intent from him like the others. . She wasn’t that much older than he was, yet she was sure he had probably experienced more than she had.
“Ok, well then Kaede, feel free to do what you’d like on board. Also for your room it should be the one at the end of the hallway. You’ll have to share with our other guest on board. I assume that’s fine with you?”
Kazuha very well knew who else would be staying in his room, “That is fine. I thank you for your hospitality, Beidou and my apologies for boarding so late.”
“Of course…now about our other guest on board, he can be a bit grumpy to say the least, so just watch out for that” Beidou warned, “no violence is allowed on board.”
“I don’t resort to violence unless my adversary would want to, captain, I don’t believe in such methods. Nor do I believe in vengeance.” Kazuha explained, “I’m afraid it is getting late though, so I’ll be turning in for the night”
Beidou nodded, “We’ll be setting sail in a bit, good night, Kazuha”
“Good night”
Kazuha walked down the hallway to the room he’d be staying in, giving a swift knock on the door before opening it.
“Why the fuck are you here?”
“How polite…” Kazuha commented as he closed the door behind him, “I’m staying here. Beidou let me on”
“I think I have every right to be angry with you, if you recall the last time we met you tried to kill me.” Kunikuzushi defended, getting up off of the bed and pulling out a catalyst for any sudden fight.
“Technically, the remnants of Orobashi tried to kill you, but I do apologize for that. I don’t mean to fight now”
“Well, I do” Kunikuzushi gritted through his teeth, he was aiming a lightning bolt right at Kazuha’s stupid little face in his head.
“Beidou said to refrain from using violence, “ The harbinger warned.
“And I should care about what she said because?”
“She’ll kick the both of us off this ship then. I’m simply here in peace in order to get out of Inazuma.”
Kunikuzushi put his catalyst down, he was tired of Inazuma and wanted to get out as soon as possible. Although he spent the years since his creation wandering Teyvat, he always hated coming back to Inazuma. Though, he supposed now he had finally gotten some closure regarding Ei’s abandoning of him. That had been the only reason to come back. Though he would be lying if he said he had come back without external influence.
Kaedehara Kazuha. That name crept its way out of the closed borders of Inazuma and rode along the waves of Teyvat’s oceans making news that shook all who heard the story. A simple samurai whose clan had long fallen from its days of nobility had been able to escape the Raiden Shogun herself.
As much as Kunikuzushi would’ve liked to think that he built up the confidence to go against the Raiden Shogun himself and finally prove to himself that he never depended on her, he knew in his mind that he had simply just finished what someone else had started. That had been one of the other reasons that Kunikuzushi had come back to Inazuma again after roaming the other nations, he wanted to meet Kaedehara. He surely must’ve been an interesting individual. Each anemo user was a child of freedom, at least that was what Barbatos had said.
Yet, in his search for Kaedehara, he came up with nothing. Not even a single picture of the samurai remained. Kunikuzushi assumed they had all been destroyed under Ei’s orders in order to deny that the samurai ever existed. Kunikuzushi had even asked the Kamisatos, a clan close to Kaedehara, about his whereabouts but they had no clue. Eventually, Kunikuzushi decided that if he couldn’t find Kaedehara then maybe he could finish what he started and find him that way.
Except, after the Raiden Shogun repealed her restrictive decrees, Kazuha never showed up. Kunikuzushi continued his search for a few weeks more, but came up short with nothing new. So, eventually he decided it was time to go somewhere new with Beidou. Inazuma’s storms were sickening.
“What’s your name, dumbass?” Kunikuzushi asked. They both sat at the edge of the bed now. Peace was what had been mutually decided on, but the electro user kept his catalyst near still. He couldn’t fully trust a harbinger, but this one didn’t seem to have any bad intentions, at least not right now. Kunikuzushi wasn’t going to just forgive him for that attempt on his life back in the delusion factory.
“What’s yours?” Kazuha deflected.
“You didn’t answer the question, dumbass,” Kunikuzushi complained.
“You didn’t answer mine either,” Kazuha replied.
“Ok and? I asked mine first, that’s kinda how conversations work” He rolled his eyes.
“I’ll only tell you mine, if you tell me yours.”
“Fine, it’s Kunikuzushi, you happy now?”
“Ah, so she was telling the truth,” Kazuha mused as a little smile crept on his face.
“If you already knew why’d you ask, dumbass?” Kunikuzushi complained. This harbinger was odd to say the least. In his years of wandering, Kunikuzushi had met many and most of them simply annoyed the hell out of him with how full of themselves they were. Especially Dottore, that bitch always tried to experiment on him. Yet, this one seemed different. Despite his antics, Kunikuzushi didn’t truly find him annoying, but more agreeable.
“I simply wanted to know if you’d trust me with your name without knowing mine. I truly am sorry about our first encounter. It was an oversight on my part, if only I had known what you were doing things could’ve gone differently…” Kazuha vaguely answered.
“What the hell are you even talking about? Didn’t I mess up your fucking plans. The Signora bitch or whatever her name is, is dead. Like ashes.”
“Mess up the Fatui’s plans, yes, you did throw it off its rails quite a bit. As for my own plans, I thank you for doing what you did with the Shogun.” Kazuha replied softly.
This bitch is actually crazier than that Dottore dude was what Kunikuzushi thought.
“You still never gave me your name” Kunikuzushi demanded.
“Oh, my apologies, I suppose I forgot.” Kazuha answered gently while the edges of his lips curled up into a sly smile.
“My name is Kazuha, Kaedehara Kazuha”
Well fuck Kunikuzushi, the person he’d been looking for the entire time was the crazy bitch that had tried to kill him.
“You’re joking, right?” Kunikuzushi half joked.
Kazuha shook his head, “I suppose you’ve heard my name before.”
“Prove it then” Kunikuzushi demanded.
Kazuha sighed, but he knew that any sane person would ask him to prove his identity as the archon defier. Carefully he unclipped his anemo vision along with an electro one that had long died out.
“This is my own vision, and this was my friends. The Fatui were able to activate it again under certain circumstances, but it never stayed lit for long.”
Kunikuzushi shook his head in denial, ”that’s not enough.”
Kazuha sighed again, “I suppose I’ll show you my scars then”
The harbinger unwrapped his own bandaged hand, revealing sharp lines of scaring that trailed from the tips of his fingers all the way up his arm.
“They say dying visions emit elemental energy corresponding to their own elements.” Kazuha explained.
“What happened?” Kunikuzushi asked.
Kazuha raised his eyebrow, but answered the question nonetheless. He assumed the other already knew the story, “My friend had challenged the Shogun to a duel and-”
“No,” Scaramouche interrupted, “What the fuck happened after? With all of that harbinger shit?”
“Ah,” Kazuha acknowledged, just how had he spiraled all the way down the path of a harbinger? Nowadays he felt like he wasn’t much of one anymore. Actually, he never felt like he had been one, simply joining in order to fill the void left behind from the duel. “After escaping the Shogun’s grasp, the Fatui offered me safety and a position as a harbinger. Most importantly though, they promised that they would be able to light up the vision again, which they were able to, so I joined them satisfied enough with the result at the time. I was stationed in Inazuma to obtain the electro gnosis, though I wished to focus more upon trying to reach my original goals of freedom for the people. That is when you came into the story though, Kunikuzushi. You did what I couldn’t. That’s why I’m here now. Sometimes I wonder if going with the Fatui had been right and each day I feel my want to stay with them waning.”
“Kazuha,” Kunikuzushi addressed, “You did what I couldn’t. You may not have fucking been able to finish the job, but you started it. As much as I’d like to say that I came to defy the Shogun myself, I needed someone to light the torch first.”
“Why did you though?” Kazuha asked.
“Why did I what, Kaedehara?”
“Why did you go against her? What was your reason?”
Kunikuzushi sighed, “My reason is more personal and selfish than yours. I never planned to free the people of Inazuma, not that I didn’t want it, but I simply don’t care that much. I had personal affairs with the Shogun that I sought to solve.”
“Ah. I see” Kazuha replied, “I don’t judge you any differently knowing your reason, even if the repealing of the decrees was only a by-product. What do you plan to do going forward?”
“Wander, do what I always used to do.”
“I wish to do the same,” Kazuha replied. With Inazuma being an open nation now, Kazuha’s goal had been achieved and he could finally do what he wanted. He was truly a wanderer at heart. He had always planned to travel Teyvat before getting caught up with the Shogun and the Fatui.
“Are you though?” Kunikuzushi asked.
“Truthfully, I don’t know, Kunikuzushi. I used to travel with my friend, but those days are long gone…I do plan on leaving the Fatui after turning in the gnosis. I made a promise to myself that I would follow whoever could light up my friend’s vision and the Fatui had done that briefly…yet it doesn’t feel right for me to stay with them.”
“I wouldn’t mind you traveling with me,” Kunikuzushi offered. He really didn’t know why he was giving the offer to Kazuha. The other had tried to kill him, but he also supposed that the other had deserved some forgiveness. He could tell that Kazuha was still lost in grief a bit as he never fully reached his closure of his friend’s death.
Kazuha smiled genuinely. It had been a while since that had last happened, but it was more than welcome.
“I wouldn’t mind that either, Kuni”
The next morning Kazuha found the electro vision he usually kept with himself shining a deep violet. It was the same shade as the wanderer’s eyes he woke up to. The ship had set sail from Inazuma, a new beginning.