Work Text:
It had been quite some time since Gygax's revival of the Windtrace games. Despite it previously having been forgotten, the game had gotten surprisingly popular in the one week it was organized. People from both Mondstadt and Liyue had been itching for it to return. The famous Traveler was among those outspoken folks, too.
Since then, Inazuma had opened its borders, which gave Gygax a brilliant idea for when he planned for the game's second run. He had already expected that swapping out the Contested Zones would be necessary - players who participated before would have an unfair advantage over newcomers, knowing all the hiding spots right off the bat. However, with the help of the Yashiro Commission - particularly Kamisato Ayaka, who had heard stories from her Traveler friend - Gygax was able to include four zones from across Inazuma for this run's line-up.
This was only one of many changes this time around, though. With feedback from the first attempt, some other tweaks were done to better balance the game experience. Certain Vision abilities that hadn't been banned before were now - especially as the number of people who could use their Vision to mess with their sprinting and speed had increased since the first run. There was also a little ninja girl that got barred from participation early on - not just because of potential Vision cheating, but also because she just simply did not come out of hiding once the round was over. In hindsight, having a ninja participate as a Rebel...it was a bit unfair, to say the least.
Fortunately, everyone who had played previously had returned and many new players who had heard of the last event were joining in as well. There was no doubt that in spite of the tweaks and changes, this would be yet another successful run of Windtrace. Which pleased not only Gygax, but Ayaka as well. It was her hope that fun, light-hearted games like this would help the people of Inazuma - especially the Vision holders that made up the bulk of the players - recover and relax after all that had occurred for them. She just hoped that the imagery of "Rebels vs Hunters" didn't bring on any negative parallels to recent events, even if it was rooted in Mondstadt's history rather than Inazuma's present.
But with how excited everyone was, sucked in by the adrenaline rushes and constantly going back for more...it appeared that the overwhelming allure of Windtrace made everyone not care - or even notice - the implications of the game in Inazuma. Not even the Inazuma Vision holders themselves.
Ritou Runaround
"Come on!! How can someone so small be so fast?!"
In a last ditch effort to capture the purple-clad zombie of Liyue - who had stolen the Contested Favor from him - Arataki Itto launched himself with his arms outstretched. His chest crashed into the stone steps, causing him to shout and groan, yet Qiqi had managed to slip away before she could be tapped. She rounded the corner of a building and disappeared out of sight. When Itto got himself on his feet and reached the same corner, he found that he had lost the trail - in spite of the whole thing lasting only several seconds.
After going through so many rounds as a Rebel, Itto finally got a chance to be a Hunter. And he was blowing it! Up against two children - plus someone literally named Childe - and the round was almost over with not a signal capture! How embarrassing for the leader of the great Arataki Gang...
Sighing, the oni lifted his head up to the sky to help fight back the tears...then jumped back in shock.
"AAhhh-!" Then, he shook his head. "-haaaAAA! There you are!"
On top of the front gate to Ritou, Childe was grinning back down at him. Looking up the structure, it was difficult to make out just how he got up there without coming across any obstructions. Itto leaned a hand against the building next to him...which caused a light bulb to go off. That was it! It wasn't too hard to get on the rooftops around here - he knew that from past experiences - so one just needed to glide from a roof to a higher, harder to climb place.
Now it was Itto's turn to grin. With less than a minute left, he was going to limp out of this round with at least one Rebel in the bag...in fairness, it could be hard to catch every Rebel, and he knew from his past games that people felt good when they were able to clutch it for the team, so he'd let the kids have that victory. But that Snezhnayan...
...had disappeared from the Ritou gate by the time Itto had gotten on top of it.
Itto's yell over-powered the signal that the round was over.
Central Hall Shadow-Chasers
Three lamps stood next to each other on the roof of the Kamisato estate.
"Won't this easily tip off the Hunter to our identity?" one asked in a woman's voice.
"You'd be surprised how much a Hunter will overlook!" another with a boyish voice chirped happily.
"The difficulty in getting up here as a small object..." the last said in a gentlemanly tone. "It is quite a gamble, potentially taking the whole 30 seconds..."
"But being a tiny thing up in the air, it's easy to go unnoticed if the Hunter doesn't know to look up - and if they do, being so small means that it's easier for them to lose sight during a chase. Why do you think Dawn Winery was both beloved and hated last time, and why it simply had to come back?"
"I suppose the one who'd grasp this game the most would be the Monstadt Archon himself."
Indeed, these three lamps were actually the Anemo, Geo, and Electro Archons - Venti, Zhongli, and Ei. When he had learned that the Traveler had convinced Ei to participate, Venti had to be there to help teach her the rules. Zhongli was also returning and the poor Geo Archon had still not gotten the hang of Windtrace either. It was one of the moments where the God of Freedom - seen by his peers as a lazy, irresponsible child - could prove his inner talents. And prove that gliding was indeed faster.
Unfortunately...he wasn't the only hardened veteran of Windtrace within this group. The Traveler was their Hunter - and they knew the tactics just as well as Venti.
A minute had passed without a single trace of the Traveler within the Kamisato estate courtyard. Allowing themselves the luxury of traveling, the trio of lamps saw from above that the Traveler had not actually moved from the starting zone.
"What...is that supposed to be?" Zhongli asked. "I'm not familiar with this strategy."
"They're just...standing there..." Ei added.
Venti hummed. "Maybe they fell asleep while standing up? Or their mind wandered too much that they missed the cue to start?"
"Should we go check on them? In case something is wrong?"
With the lamp disguise active, neither of Venti's fellow Archons could see the grin forming on his face. "It appears that an entirely new game has presented itself..."
Suddenly, a lamp was gliding through the air, before dive-bombing in front of the frozen Traveler. It hopped around the Traveler's feet and scurried around in circles.
"That...seems ill-advised..." Zhongli commented.
Ei could only agree.
A second later and Venti was forced back into his regular form as a blue circle surrounded the Traveler, catching him in its radius. The Traveler ended their stoic gaze by chuckling and smirking.
"Knew you couldn't resist taunting."
In a City of Yore Concealed
Despite the fact that their breathing could not be heard while in disguised mode, the Watatsumi General found himself holding in a breath anyway. Just a few feet away, a general of the Shogunate's army was closing in on his position. He had to remind himself that this was a completely different situation than the war, though - for one, he was currently a barrel.
Kujou Sara only played within the Contested Zones of Mondstadt and Liyue. This was a gesture of fairness on her part, as she knew the layout of much of the Inazuma Contested Zones. Some other Inazumans had joined her in this gesture. As none of the Contested Zones took place on Watatsumi Island or close to their Yashiori Island fort, Gorou technically didn't have too much of an unfair advantage. Yet he still felt like putting himself to the test by focusing on playing within unfamiliar lands. It'd keep his mind sharp, having to come up with hiding and evasion strategies in only 30 seconds without any prior knowledge of what the area would look like.
This time, he had decided to lean towards using the Rebel abilities more often. He found a pair of wooden barrels under a tilted slab of the ruins and disguised himself as a third barrel in between them. It was such an inconspicuous spot that he hoped the Hunter would overlook the additional barrel without questioning it - if they even had memorized that there were only two barrels here in the first place.
Sadly, sometimes the universe did not care for ingenious, well-thought plans. Sometimes, it was simply bad luck that they fell apart. To be fair, Kujou Sara had hard-wired it into her brain to check spots with multiple props around, for a higher chance of stumbling across a disguised Rebel. She stood her ground and let the Hunter skill go...and barrel-disguised Gorou had been in range to be captured. His disguise was dropped as he was frozen in place for a brief moment, showing Sara that her instinct had paid off. She gave a nod of acknowledgement, then moved on in search of the other Rebels elsewhere. Gorou sighed and resolved himself to studying the field and his teammates while he was in spectator mode, hoping to formulate a better strategy for next time.
...
A few seconds later, the barrel that stood behind Gorou let out a sigh of relief. Yoimiya's mind was racing.
I can't believe I dodged that, I can't believed that missed me, ohhhhh Archons-
Both Inazumans were so unfamiliar with the Contested Zones at this point, they were completely unaware that this spot of the map was only supposed to have one barrel.
Thanks for taking one for the team, Gorou! I'll pay you back for this later!
The Hidden Trials
For as long as he could remember, people treated Bennett as if he were a bad luck charm. He couldn't get people to stay on his adventuring team, his list of friends had grown small (although loyal) over the years, and even Bennett himself had to admit that so many accidents happened to and around him...the young boy tried to keep his spirits high, but it was hard to keep the energy up some days. Sometimes, it felt like the best choice was to just accept his lot and give up.
This was the complete opposite of those dark days.
When he played Windtrace during its initial revival run, Bennett had often been the first caught early in the round as a Rebel and a Hunter that could hardly even catch sight of a single Rebel the entire round. In order to accumulate enough Windtrace coins for prize tiers, he'd have to play significantly more rounds than most other players. This greater time of practice seemed to not hone any skills, however. He almost feared a repeat this time, too, but...in spite of constantly losing, Bennett had to admit that this game was just too much fun to keep away from. Maybe the fact he had to play so much to earn all the prizes was a blessing in disguise - it forced him to play to his heart's content, while others would call it quits once their goals were complete, then regretted not making the most of their limited time when the event was over.
And now that he was back in the thick of it...maybe those extra hours of play did pay off. This round he was playing now, within the Kujou Encampment that was a complete surprise as an inclusion, was the longest he had lasted as a Rebel. He was over halfway to victory! And both his teammates were still in too, so the pressure to not lose for their sake wasn't there either! Although maybe the fact that three Rebels were still in the game past the halfway mark said more about the Hunter's skill than it did theirs...
Of course...there was one other thing to keep in mind this far into a Windtrace round...
A Favor has descended over some part of the Contested Zone. Pick one up to charge up your Secret Favor...
Oh no, it looks like the Hunter marker on my map is close to where the Favor's dropping...trying to get it myself would be suicide, so hopefully somebody else is close enough...
Unfortunately for Bennett...
Hunter Thoma has obtained a Favor!
Oh crap...!
Hunter Thoma has used Insight and the locations of all Rebels will be displayed for 20 seconds
Of course. Why would it be anything else? Insight was the most popular Secret Favor on the Hunter side - the other two, while having more effects and a longer duration, only affected one Rebel when cast. Usually, only those who were truly confident in their seeking skills would go for those, rather than the opportunity to reveal the whole Rebel team and send them scrambling. It was even better if it was down to simply one Rebel, too...
Three towers of light shot up in the air as disguises were dispelled and the Hunter's map now had three markers on it. To his horror, Bennett found the Kamisato clan servant approaching his spot. Knowing that his position was no longer safe, he leaped to action and started to flee. From several feet behind, Thoma pursued. They climbed up rooftops and trees, parkouring and wind-gliding from above. They sprinted across the grassy land and in between Kujou Encampment soldiers. They twisted around corners and through obstacles - Bennett hoping that Thoma would lose sight of him and Thoma gaining a bit more ground in the chase. Through it all, Bennett tried to avoid the two other pillars of light signaling his teammates.
His stamina was never going to last forever, though. And it was just a matter of fact by this point that taller folks could cover more ground than the smaller ones when it came to movement speed. As he attempted to climb on top of another treetop, Bennett suddenly felt his body involuntarily stop. A glow surrounded him - the sign of capture. He had lost the chase.
Although, he wasn't able to keep his shoulders drooped for long. Now that his mind wasn't laser-focused on evasion, Bennett realized that the glow of being captured was the only glow he could see. The lights of Insight had disappeared. His remaining teammates did not have to worry about being relentlessly pursued by a Hunter that knew their every move. Even though he had ultimately been captured, his chase had lasted long enough to waste time and give his fellow Rebels a fighting chance.
Not long after that realization, the sound of the timer was heard across the Contested Zone. The round had ended with only Bennett being captured, which still counted as a Rebel victory and would give him a better score of Windtrace coins than an overall Rebel loss would.
A few moments after the end, Thoma approached Bennett after his spectator invisibility was dropped. The red-armored man was smiling.
"That was a good round!" Thoma said. "And a good chase, too. If you hadn't been as fast and resourceful as you were, I might've still had time to catch another person's location with Insight."
Blinking for a couple beats, Bennett soon nodded back at his former foe and raised his thumb. "Thanks! You played a pretty good game yourself!"
A good game...right, I have to remember that all the talk about skill and winning is for show. We're all here just to have fun. And these games are really fun!