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“Kunikuzushi, one day it’ll be your turn to take the throne and that day will be the best one of your life.”
That was what Kunikuzushi had been told ever since he had been young enough to understand his royal status. When he was younger, Kunikuzushi had taken pride in being the crown prince of Inazuma. All of it would be his to inherit when he came of age.
But, as he grew older, he learned the reality of what the position entailed. Maybe royalty had been a life fit for his mother and all of their bloodline, but that didn’t mean it was fit for everyone. Ever since his own birth, Kunikuzushi had been a free child who loved running around the halls of Tenshukaku or exploring the dynamic world outside.
Maybe for the first few years his mother had allowed him to do such things, but now he was made to fit the crown he was to inherit. He had no time designated for just himself. It was always: go to this ceremony or take these lessons in etiquette or meet with this person.
Kunikuzushi had grown to hate the stagnancy of it all. Everything was ordered, structured, and proper. While it may be necessary for there to be some order in life, Kunikuzushi preferred a much freer lifestyler without any restrictions on what he could and couldn’t do.
Those restrictions had only increased in the recent months. A resistance had been growing as political unrest in Inazuma had been reaching levels higher than they ever had been before. Ei had forbidden Kunikuzushi from leaving the palace courtyard walls in fear of her son and heir’s safety. She knew the resistance would try to target him.
And that was what had done it. It pushed the final nail in the coffin. A simple arrow shot over the courtyard walls and landed directly into the roasted lavender melon that Kunikuzushi was planning to eat outside. Honestly it angered Kunikuzushi more that they ruined his afternoon snack than the fact that an attempt on his life had been made.
And of course the person who had seen the whole ordeal had been Heizou of all people. And of course Heizou had to investigate and find out the arrow originated from the resistance and he just had to tell the Shogun about it too. Kunikuzushi never planned on telling his mother about the incident because he knew she would jsut grow more worried than she already was and do something stupid like give him a personal knight, a bodyguard. Kunikuzushi was more than capable of defending himself. As the heir to the throne, he was already blessed with strong electro powers, and his combat prowess had only increased as he trained through the years.
Yet, the Shogun still felt the need to give him a personal knight.
It was a samurai by the name of Kaedehara Kazuha.
Kaedehara Kazuha would be accompanying Kunikuzushi as he traveled across Teyvat’s ocean to where he’d be staying in Liyue. Ei told Kunikuzushi that she was sending him off to Liyue because she knew that he should get a chance to see the world before becoming chained to Inazuma as its ruler. Though he was sure that she was only doing this because she feared for her son’s safety in Inauzma’s crumbling political system while Liyue was rather stable. If it meant that Kunikzuushi wouldn’t have to be chained to Inazuma, he’d take the opportunity.
The only caveat was that at all times he’d have to be accompanied by Kaedehara Kazuha who he supposed wasn’t that bad compared to staying locked up in the palace all the time, but at the same time Kunikuzushi wasn’t just some toddler that needed a babysitter.
Kazuha was an expert swordsman who, like Kunikuzushi, had trained since a young age. He was blessed with the power of anemo, of freedom, which Kunikuzushi found quite ironic considering the samurai was the one thing in the way of Kunikuzushi’s freedom. Another reason Kazuha had been picked for the job though was that he was knowledgeable of both Inazuma and Liyue. Kaedehara had sailed on Beidou’s famed Alcor Crew and had visited many of the nations throughout all of Teyvat.
Despite his initial impressions of Kazuha, Kunikuzushi found himself getting along quite well or maybe even a bit more than that with his personal knight. Although Kazuha was basically a bodyguard, at heart he was a wanderer. That was why he had spent his days sailing across Teyvat with Beidou. Traveling the way he did also brought stories into Kunikuzushi’s ears that filled his imagination with all sorts of images. Eventually though, Kazuha had settled with becoming Kunikuzushi’s knight because the Tenryou Commission had personally asked him to knowing his background. Although he might not have agreed with the current political standings in Inazuma, he felt indebted to his homeland and accepted the position graciously after first meeting the prince.
He viewed it more as gaining a partner in his travels than having to take care of someone. That was what Kunikuzushi liked about Kazuha. Even though technically Kazuha was his knight who was there solely to protect him, Kazuha never tried to restrict anything Kunikuzushi did. In fact Kazuha probably pushed him to do more than restrict them. If Ei found out about that she wouldn’t have been happy.
She also probably wouldn’t be happy with the fact that her little Kunikuzushi had fallen in love for someone who wasn’t of high royal standard.
That was what Kunikuzushi liked though. Kazuha treated him equally. It was refreshing for someone to look at him for something other than his status for once.
Kunikuzushi had spent the last few months traveling across Liyue’s vast landscapes with Kazuha. It had been the happiest time he’d ever had in his life. All things goods had to come to an end though and Kunikuzushi knew that.
The end was signaled with a single letter sent from Ei.
She was asking that Kunikuzushi find a proper suitor for himself because it would soon be time for his crowning as the new ruler of Inazuma. He had come of age now and she was completely oblivious to what was happening in Kunikuzushi’s life.
In the letter she had listed a few potential candidates she had in mind and suggested: Sanganomiya Kokomi of Watatsumi Island, Prince Aether of the Abyss, Prince Ajax from Snezhnaya, and Diluc of Mondstadt.
There was also a letter from each of them introducing themselves. The letter from Ei urged him to reply and introduce himself to them too. He didn’t care for any of them.
He skimmed through all of the letters quickly and they were all boring as hell.
Kokomi seemed overly obsessed over strategy than she was over actually wanting to be in a relationship. She simply laid out all of the political benefits of unifying both ends of Inazuma. Kunikuzushi could’ve cared less for politics.
Aether’s letter hadn’t been bad, but he didn’t seem to be what Kunikuzushi was looking for. Plus dealing with the Abyss could always be a bit messy. Something Kunikuzushi didn’t want to surround himself with.
Ajax was an odd fellow to say the least. The illegible handwriting was all that Kunikuzushi needed to see in order to know that he didn’t want to deal with him. It was also rumored that he was a ginger.
On the contrary, Diluc’s letter was very well written and proper. Prim and proper, everything Kunikuzushi didn’t like. There was a certain charm in being polite and well-mannered, like a certain samurai he knew was, but when it was too much it came off as stiff and cold. There wasn’t anything of actual genuine feeling in that letter.
Honestly, Kunikuzushi never thought of suitors nor did he care about browsing through them at this point. He didn’t want to tie himself down to someone else of royalty. It wasn’t like he needed one anyway, he wasn’t lonely in any way. He had Kazuha to thank for that.
However he was obligated to write a response to every person’s letter for the sake of politeness in order to not cause any political drama. He was still going to respectfully decline all of their offers. He was going to push off the whole suitor matter for as long as he could as possible.
That was where Kazuha came into play.
“You called me, Kuni?” Kazuha asked as he saw the other situated at his desk looking over a set of letters.
“Yeah…I need to get a suitor or some shit like that” Kunikuzushi rolled his eyes as if the matter was no big deal, “all of these people suck, but I have to let them down nicely for some fucking reason. I was thinking that you have quite the way with words because I don’t understand half the shit you say sometimes and you could write them for me.”
Kazuha thought it over for a second, thinking about the consequences, but reluctantly agreed. After all he was supposed to serve Kunikuzushi, “I suppose I can do it, but that won’t dismiss the entire matter. You’re still going to have to find a suitor eventually, Kuni…I’m afraid our time in Liyue may be coming to an end soon.”
“I don’t need a suitor, I already have you” Kunikuzushi waved it off ignoring Kazuha’s strawberry blush, “Ei will forget about it and push it off again. She always used to pester me with this shit.”
“Yet you still refuse to tell her the truth between us.” Kazuha hummed.
“She’ll drop it eventually,” Kunikuzushi retorted.
“But did you ever receive any letter from possible candidates?” Kazuha raised his eyebrow.
“No, but that probably doesn’t matter and frankly I don’t care about getting married off to some random nobody. Sounds tiring. I much prefer my life with you as it is right now…and I don’t plan on changing it” Kunikuzushi replied.
“I see…” Kazuha hummed, “Well, I suppose I’ll write the replies.”
With another week came another letter from Ei.
This time she seemed quite pleased with Kunikuzushi for once in his life. Though also included with Ei’s letters came a few others. They were all from the suitors he rejected. He found it a bit odd how they replied back after being rejected.
Then again people were weird like that, maybe it was just some polite thing. Kunikuzushi wouldn’t have known.
He cracked open the first one from Kokomi and instantly he called his knight into the room.
“Kazuha!” He yelled, obvious irritation in his voice.
“Yes, Kuni? Is something the matter?” Kazuha asked, oblivious to the situation.
“What the fuck did you write in those letters?” Kunikuzushi demanded.
“I simply let them down gently, was that not what you requested of me?” Kazuha asked, still confused.
“I asked you to reject them, not lead them on” Kunikuzushi complained, “Who the fuck writes, ‘although we may not be together with every passing glance, I find myself getting lost in the iridescent pearls reflected in your eyes’ in a rejection letter? Also why don’t you ever say that type of shit to me?”
“Oh” Kazuha hadn’t thought he wrote anything that could come off as leading on, but now hearing it back maybe he had embellished his words a little too much. “I suppose I might’ve gotten a little carried away. I thought you might not want to hear it, Kuni, but if you please then I too find your eyes completely captivating the single instantaneous glow of the lightning that burns and captures the attention of-”
“Ok, shut up.” Kunikuzushi rudely retorted, “I didn’t mean for you actually to start spewing a bunch of flowery shit right now.”
Kazuha decided to ignore his prince’s grouchiness, it wasn’t uncommon, “I do apologize for the letters though, I may have gotten a bit too carried away…”
“You think?”
“At least there’s no real harm done, I can always write each of them another letter clearing up the matter and using more direct language” Kazuha offered, but at that moment another letter arrived from Ei.
“Oh great” Kunikuzushi sarcastically exclaimed, “just what I wanted, another letter from Ei.”
Kunikuzushi quickly unsealed it and as soon as he read it, he could feel a frown deepening on his face.
“Is there a problem, Kuni?” Kazuha asked, trying to see the contents of the letter.
“Ei wants us to return back to Inazuma to meet each suitor. They all have already made plans to visit Tenshukaku. It’s one of the few things I can’t slip my way out of” Kunikuzushi sighed.
“Oh” Kazuha replied.
“Yeah big oh” Kunikuzushi replied, “you better make it up to me for this fucking shit, Kaedehara”
Meeting with all of the other suitors had been one of the most annoying things Kunikuzushi had ever had to do. It would’ve been completely unbearable if Kazuha hadn’t been there to accompany him.
Making conversation with these others was worse than anything Kunikuzushi could’ve imagined, luckily Kazuha did most of the flowery meaningless talking for him. Kokomi only talked strategy, Ajax spent a whole monologue about how he loves fighting people, Aether spent a whole conversation talking about his sister, but not himself, and Diluc denied the fact that he was the Darknight hero half the time even though neither Kazuha nor Kunikuzushi knew nor cared who that was and didn’t even mention it.
Before the night ended though, Ei had an announcement to make and Kunikuzushi made sure to glare straight into her eyes as she made it. He wanted to fucking punch her. She knew what she was doing.
“It has been a pleasure to meet all of you,” She fakely began, “But as the night comes to a close, I believe it is time for Kunikuzuhsi to decide his future spouse. I give the floor to you Kunikuzushi.”
You’re a fucking bitch is what Kunikuzushi thought, but he knew better than to let his tongue that loose in the presence of all these other people. The spotlight had now been shifted to Kunikuzushi and Kazuha standing beside him.
“Of course” Kunikuzushi lied, if she wanted to force him into a corner and do this now, he’d make sure she’d regret it.
“It has been a pleasure meeting all of you and truly, I do believe I have found the one” Kunikuzushi lied, well it wasn’t entirely a lie, “Before I do so, I have a confession to make. I was not the one to write the letters.” He was sure that Ei was absolutely trying to beat the living hell out of him with her death glare, but she couldn’t do anything in front of all these people, “My knight, Kazuha, had. I apologize for leading any of you on, but I’m afraid I may not reciprocate any of the feelings…”
Kunikuzushi paused to clear his throat. He knew Ei was absolutely livid, but he still had one more thing to say.
“That is because I’m afraid I’m already taken…” Kunikuzushi announced.
A wave of murmur erupted throughout the small audience as they looked around for any sign of who it could be. The mood changed in the split of the moment of a few words. Kunikuzushi knew he would be the subject of Inazuma’s latest gossip along with Kazuha after tonight.
As he had done many times before, Kunikuzushi placed a gentle peck on his knight’s lips whose cheeks had turned a flushed pink as the audience watched on. He would never hesitate to show off who was his and whose he was in front of anyone. Royalty or not, Kunikuzushi never cared. Ei had given him a list of suitors, he simply had just chosen one that was a bit more unconventional. After all she had been the one to introduce them to each other, so it was only fair. Kunikuzushi never cared for what she thought though, he only cared for what his samurai lover did.