Chapter Text
Word of Mondstadt’s destruction has arrived in Inazuma, and it was only a matter of time until the cataclysm reached the land of eternity too. It was said that on the first day, the cold winds of Dragonspine had somehow reached Starfell Valley, covering the entire city in snow and freezing the waters that surrounded it. Next was the rain of fire that turned Wolvendom into nothing but a pile of ashes. Then came the Earthquake that split the entire nation in two, the storm that flooded the city, and then the hurricane that uprooted the tree of Windrise; all of these calamities sent down by Celestia that the Knights of Favonius could not fight off. It was rumored that Barbatos himself had come out of hiding to protect his children but it was too late– too many lives were lost and it would take years before the nation can recover, that is if the calamities ever stopped. The incidents in Mondstadt have sent the entirety of Teyvat into a panic, and the Archons are hopeless as to what to do. Even the ever-competent Qixing of Liyue were at a loss, for this was not the kind of war they were equipped to fight in.
Inazuma was not safe, and sooner or later they would have to face the wrath of Celestia as well. There was no telling what could happen, but it was clear that whatever was about to hit them was going to leave Inazuma as a wasteland.
The Shogun has ordered the citizens of Inazuma to evacuate and take refuge in the neighboring nations. Each head of the Tri-Commission was tasked with making sure there were no citizens left behind and that by the time the calamities reached the country there would be no lives lost. Of course, everyone was aware that they were only delaying the inevitable and that no one in Teyvat was safe. But still, humans were resilient creatures and if there was even a sliver of a chance at surviving this then they would keep grasping at straws if they had to.
Ayato did not hold such delusions. He always knew that one way or another he was going to die, but he never would have thought he’d be so helpless like this in the face of the inescapable. He used to assume he would die at the hands of his enemies, that his blood would stain the grounds of Inazuma as just another casualty of the cruel politics in the Tri-Commission.
(There was a part of him, a very small and hidden part, that wished he would die at the hands of time– that he would grow old and live a simple life on the outskirts of Inazuma, away from all of the shadows that hounded him as the Yashiro Commissioner and the leader of the Shuumatsuban.
The image of an elderly white-haired Oni with wrinkles in the corner of his eyes and the sides of his mouth, smiling at him and dancing would sometimes come to mind, but this was something he never let himself dwell on.)
Though right now, in the face of death, he did not want to let himself think about anything but his duties. He was standing side by side with Ayaka and Thoma, both of them handing out small relief bags filled with clothes, blankets, and non-perishable goods to the people who were in line to board the fourth ship headed to Fontaine. However, he can’t help but search the crowd for a familiar face, a flash of white hair, blood-red tattoos, stark crimson horns– or anything at all. He was so focused on the crowd of people that he barely registered Ayaka calling out his name.
“Nii-sama,” She says, putting a trembling hand on his shoulder when she finally caught his attention, “You’re looking for someone.”
The way she said it, not as an accusation but as a fact, was the reason why he didn’t even try to deny it. He just gives her a shaky sigh, reaching for the hand on his shoulder and patting it.
“It doesn’t matter,” He answers instead of a yes or no, reaching for one of the bags and handing it to an elderly woman walking up to the front of the line.
“Of course, it matters, especially when you look so desperate,” Ayaka softy retorts, not in a scolding manner but sounding more concerned, “You did not look this helpless even when the news of Mondstadt reached us, not even when the Vision Hunt Decree was announced. Tell me who you’re looking for, and maybe Thoma and I can help you find them.”
Ayato finally turns to look at her.
Ayaka, who was usually so poised and elegant looked so much older in this moment. Her hair which was usually neatly tied up was currently let down and unkempt, blowing in every which way with the harsh winds of the sea. Her eyes, usually so full of light, were a dull blue as gloomy as the cloudy sky. Ayato could not bear to burden her with his own silly troubles when she was already dealing with so much.
“It doesn’t matter,” Ayato repeats, this time with his face stony and voice stiff so Ayaka knows to drop it.
She doesn’t, of course. Ayaka knows her brother best and she knows that this is not something she should simply drop. She loves her brother through and through– even as the world bends and breaks around them she would still do anything to make him happy.
Instead of pushing further, though, she turns to Thoma for help. In other contexts, Thoma would have beamed fondly at the siblings’ antics but for now, he just looks at her with his tired eyes and a smile that did not reach them.
“Let’s focus on making sure everyone can safely board the ship,” Ayato says before Thoma can even utter a word.
The conversation should end with that.
The three of them go back to their task, even if Ayaka seems like she still has things she wants to say. Ayato continues to look over the crowd, checking the list of names he has in hand and making sure everyone was lining up in an orderly fashion. Even with the looming cataclysm, the citizens of Inazuma remain calm, at least on the outside. Perhaps it was due to the helplessness, the knowledge that even if they were to cry or scream or cause a scene nothing could stop the wrath of Celestia from raining down on them.
But then Ayato sees approaching from afar, a figure with bright green hair peeking out from under a hood with a mask covering the lower part of their face and he could barely stop his legs from running toward them. He breathes in deeply and tries to will his heartbeat to slow down, but it only picks up its pace as he does not find what he is looking for. Kuki Shinobu would never leave her leader behind, so why was she with the rest of the Arataki gang without the Oni leader in sight?
“Isn’t that the deputy leader of the Arataki gang?” Thoma asks when he follows Ayato’s line of sight, “Where is Itto, then?”
Ayato keeps himself from reacting, trying to still his trembling hands as the aforementioned gang neared the docks. Ayato holds his breath as his eyes meet Shinobu’s, and he was shocked to see her eyes shining as if it holds unshed tears. However, as soon as she sees him, the sadness disappears and is instead replaced with unbridled white-hot rage.
She bounds towards him, uncaring as she elbows and grabs at people trying to get to where Ayato was situated at the very front.
“You!” She yells, swiftly dodging the guards trying to push her back to the very end of the line.
“Please go back in line, there are others who have been waiting for far longer than you have to board the ship,” Ayato says almost robotically as if he was following a script.
Shinobu grabs his collar, eliciting shocked gasps from the crowd that seemed to have taken notice of the scuffle. Both Ayaka and Thoma, as well as some of the Shogunate soldiers standing guard near them, reached for their weapons. Ayato simply shook his head at them, letting them know to continue helping the other people in line as he deals with the angry deputy general.
“How could you?” Shinobu’s voice trembles, but there’s a poisonous accusation laced in her voice, and Ayato could do nothing but stay still and shake his head.
“I don’t know what you think I did, but please try to calm down and direct your misguided anger elsewhere,” Ayato responds, a half-truth and a half-lie.
(Ayato had always been good at those half-truths and half-lies, it’s why he did so well as the Yashiro Commissioner. It’s also how he held onto the fantasy of Itto for so long, he’d give him lies dressed as truths and truths intertwined with lies. He was Ayato, but he was not. He was Itto’s friend, but he was not. He did not love him, but he– )
“Misguided?” the deputy leader questions incredulously, “I think I have every right to be angry at you, Yashiro Commissioner.”
“Please do not bring your personal issues with me here,” Ayato states calmly, though he was anything but calm in this moment, “We can talk once we’ve boarded the ship.”
Shinobu lets go of his collar, but only so she can shove him away. There was another gasp from the people of Inazuma who were still watching them, and both Ayaka and Thoma rush to the stumbling Ayato’s side to help him up.
“I understand that tensions are high because of what’s going on but violence will not fix anything,” Thoma says as he approaches, “Let’s all calm down until we’ve at least left the docks.”
“You are all so shameless,” Shinobu all but yells, and by this time the rest of the Arataki gang had already reached them and was standing by their deputy leader’s side, “I thought you were a coldhearted man, Kamisato Ayato, but I didn’t realize you didn’t have a heart at all. I am not here to board your stupid fucking boat, I’m here to discuss matters relating to my boss, our leader.”
Kuki Shinobu was not one for unprofessionalism, in fact, she was the only member of the Arataki gang that Ayato expects to maintain any sort of decorum. However, it was clear that Shinobu has already thrown any respect she had for the Kamisato head out the window.
“I’ve already asked you not to bring our personal issues here, Kuki-san, please just go back to the line and we can discuss these matters when we’ve-”
“I told you, we aren’t here to board the boat,” Shinobu reiterates, voice unwavering, “And how dare you call this just personal issues . This is more than what happened between you and Itto. I’m not here to discuss what you did to him, and I’m not here to beg. I’m here to ask you why, when every citizen of Inazuma has a chance to escape and survive the second cataclysm, is he not given the same chance? I know that this all might be hopeless and that we’re just prolonging the inevitable but are we just supposed to leave him for dead when the calamities eventually reach Inazuma?”
Ayato had thought that Kuki Shinobu was attacking him for mistakes from his past, that she had taken the end of Teyvat as they knew it and decided that she should enact final revenge on him before Celestia themselves got to him. Now, he’s left in confusion, not knowing what the deputy general was talking about.
“I- what do you mean?” Ayato sputters, confusion coloring his face, “What do you mean he isn’t given the chance? Where is Itto?”
Ayato can feel not only his family members eyes burning a hole in the back of his head, surely curious about what he had done for the most polite and cordial Arataki member to hate him so. It wasn’t just Shinobu too, even the rest of the Arataki gang who you can trust to be able to lighten up any situation were looking on with various emotions ranging from disappointment to genuine upset on their faces.
“Stop acting stupid, it’s unbecoming as the Yashiro Commissioner,” Shinobu spits, “Yesterday when we tried to board one of the ships headed to Natlan we were stopped. They told us we can come but not- not the Oni.”
Ayato’s heart drops.
“No,” he denies, “No, that can’t be right. There are no restrictions on who can ride the boats. As long as you are a citizen of Inazuma you have the right to-”
Oh.
Realization dawns on him. Citizens of Inazuma had to be prioritized when filling up the ships. Non-citizens were to board specific boats bound for Sumeru City and Port Ormos. But Itto, Itto who was a citizen but at the same time treated as a non-citizen by others due to his Oni heritage– where was he supposed to go? Was he even allowed to go anywhere at all?
“Where is he?” Ayato asks, his voice barely above a whisper.
“And why should I tell you?” Shinobu asks, and though the question might read as sarcasm to others Ayato knows that there is genuineness in it. Her eyes, though still filled with rage, also shine brightly with tears.
“Please,”
(Ayato does not like saying please, at least not genuinely. He’s said it far too many times to ever truly mean it, and he does not like the feeling of begging. Itto used to tease him and call him a brat for refusing to say that word to him before Ayato would grab his face and shut him up with a kiss.
But in this moment, he feels it in the thrum of his heart and the marrow in his bones, he means the word more than anyone will ever know.)
“Please, Kuki-san,” he repeats, desperation crawling in his lungs as he chokes down the bile rising up his throat.
“He’s headed to Watatsumi island to see if any of the ships there will let him come,” one of the Arataki members, Genta, responds when Shinobu doesn’t.
“Has he left? It would take only a few hours by waverider if-”
“He doesn’t have a waverider. He’s going on foot until he reaches Fort Fujitou where hopefully there are boats headed to Watatsumi,” Another member pipes in.
“What? But it would take days to get to Watatsumi by paddleboat, by then the cataclysm will have reached Inazuma,” Ayato deduces, voice trembling as he tries to keep himself from raising it.
Kuki Shinobu finally speaks.
“He knows. We all know,” she says, eyes finally softening, “But it was a chance, one he can’t be afforded here.”
Ayato’s head turns in the direction of Kannazuka, as if he could make out Itto’s silhouette walking away in the distance.
“He knows too, that he might not even make it to Watatsumi. Or that by the time he gets there all the boats could have already left. He knows all this, which is why he begged us to come down to Ritou by ourselves. He said it would all be okay, that he’d have Ushi with him and that even Celestia would struggle to take him down,” she continues, with a hint of fondness despite the anguish in her voice, “That stupid, stupid boy.”
Ayato is the Yashiro Commissioner. He is the head of the Kamisato clan. He is a boss to Sayu, a best friend to Thoma, and a brother to Ayaka, but above all– he is just a boy who loves. When the cataclysm reaches him, it will not be his duties to his nation and to his family that will linger in his thoughts as he takes his final breath. It will be the soft smile that bares sharp teeth, the booming laughter that scares away the docile Onikabuto, the soft white hair that smells faintly of hair product. It will be the mornings basking in the sunlight as the scent of roasted lavender melon fills the air, the warm afternoons playing trading card games while tea brews in Granny Oni’s kitchen, and the night that is spent intertwined with each other, skin-to-skin, heart-to-heart, reaching within their souls. Selfish thoughts they are but Ayato knows, knows that it will be Arataki Itto he thinks of.
“He hasn’t left Narukami yet,” Shinobu’s voice is what breaks him out of his stupor, “I know things didn’t end well between the two of you but he doesn’t deserve to be alone right now and he won’t let us come with him. If it’s you, he might listen. Please, Kamisato-san, bring him back to us.”
Ayato turns away to look at Ayaka and Thoma– his family – standing behind him. The crowd of Inazumans have already stopped watching them, probably deciding that getting to safety is a much bigger priority than eavesdropping on the personal business of the Kamisato clan. He has already made up his mind, but still, he needs to know that his family will understand.
“I don’t know what’s going on, or what your relationship is with Arataki Itto but I know you, Nii-sama,” Ayaka says, and though her smile is sad, there is light in her eyes that brings comfort to Ayato, “Thoma and I will take care of everything here. Go to him.”
Ayato nods. He then looks toward Shinobu and the rest.
“Thank you, Shinobu,”
He hugs his sister first and utters a hushed I love you and I’m sorry as he leaves a kiss on top of her hair. He then grabs Thoma and hugs him next, whispering something so quiet that Ayato wasn’t sure if he had been heard. But when he pulls away and looks at Thoma, the solemn look in his eyes and stiff nod in his direction tell Ayato that his meaning was understood.
With one final look at his family, he dusts himself off and steps off the docks of Ritou. He heads to Amakane Island, where he knows Itto will be waiting.