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“Good luck, Your Excellency,” Gorou tells her.
“Thank you, General,” Kokomi replies, doing her best to ignore the fact that her loyal general’s demeanor is that of someone watching her walk to her death.
It’s not going to be that bad, despite what he thinks. Even before all of the things she’d learned about the Raiden Shogun through her correspondence with Miko, Kokomi had always respected the God of Thunder. The woman had been a fair and effective ruler for hundreds upon hundreds of years, always quick to step in and correct damaging policy.
The Vision Hunt Decree had been a bizarre aberration, the Sakoku Decree perhaps even more so, and her apparent indifference to the war the greatest of all. The unfair taxation that the Kanjou Commission had been levying on trade with Narukami for the last few years was likewise the sort of thing that Kokomi would have expected to see resolved quickly and easily had something not been getting in the way of her attempts to correspond with the Shogun.
She had meant what she told Lumine, back when they first met: her goal had never been a military victory over the Shogunate, but rather to discover what was causing the Shogun to behave in such an out of character manner so that she could resolve it.
Learning that the Shogun hadn’t even known about the war, had been completely unaware of the problems that had been ravaging Inazuma…
Kokomi won’t lie and say that her respect for the woman hadn’t taken a hit at that, at the fact that the Shogun could pay so little attention to her nation for a year that she would miss something as big as a civil war. On the other hand, the validation of her belief in the Shogun’s good intentions is enough to make her want to give the god a chance to explain herself.
Miko had been tight-lipped about how it was possible for the Shogun not to know what was happening, so Kokomi wants to hear it from the woman’s own mouth. Maybe there was a good reason for it.
Kokomi hopes there was.
“I’ll be fine,” Kokomi says firmly. “Just focus on keeping things stable here while I’m away, okay? There’s no need to worry about me.”
“As Your Excellency commands,” Gorou accepts, bowing deeply.
Kokomi smiles at him, then turns and boards the waiting ship. She briefly greets the captain and crew, then excuses herself to her designated room as they begin making the preparations to depart.
She crawls into the bed and settles into a meditative posture, doing her best to organize her racing, messy thoughts into her preferred calm rivers. Despite her assurances to Gorou, despite her genuine certainty that she’ll be safe on this trip…
Its importance nonetheless cannot possibly be overstated, and the pressure has been enough to throw her mind into disarray as she’s endlessly planned out every possible scenario. She has not one but five notebooks in her bag, all filled cover to cover with notes and scenarios.
These notebooks aren’t like the one she’d given Lumine and Paimon before the preliminary negotiations with Kujou Sara, either — that had been a placebo, something intended to show them that she had things under control. It had been a great success, given Paimon had said that just having it had soothed her nerves… though Kokomi has to admit she’d found it hilarious when the flying girl had actually tried to use the thing. Did she really think Kokomi believed she could effectively utilize a book of 187 different directives without any preparation? The soldiers of Watatsumi have had her standard directives drilled into them for years, and even they slip up from time to time.
These notebooks, on the other hand, are the real deal. Kokomi has memorized every single one of them, and is ready to adapt to whatever comes her way.
Or she will be once her thoughts are firmly back under her control, anyway. She’ll only get one chance at a first impression to the Shogun, and she wants it to be the best it can be. Intelligent, competent, confident… she has to appear to be all of those things.
…Faking confidence is something she has a great deal of practice with, after all of these years of serving as Divine Priestess. It’s the other two she’s worried about, given the Shogun’s own abilities.
There’s no doubt that the Shogun is frighteningly intelligent and overwhelmingly competent, whatever bizarre circumstances had led to her neglect of Inazuma for the last year aside. As terrible as it is, Kokomi kind of hopes she’d been struggling with some kind of horrible illness that left her no time for her nation (scenario #624) or locked in an endless struggle with a resurgent evil god (scenario #913) or summoned to Celestia on god business that kept her away (scenario #262) or… or any of the many different scenarios that Kokomi has come up with that would give the god an excuse for her inaction that Kokomi can stomach. Something that will let her keep her respect for the Shogun intact.
With a sigh, Kokomi accepts that peace of mind is not going to return to her easily. Collapsing into a more comfortable posture, she reaches into her bag and removes the small box containing her correspondence with Miko.
It’s a little silly, she supposes, but rereading the letters that the Lady Guuji has sent her has become one of the most effective ways to help her relax. The older priestess’s words are endlessly teasing, but also earnest and genuine in a way Kokomi rarely encounters with those she needs to interact with in her position as Divine Priestess. The fox never tried to hide that she was trying to bias Kokomi in favor of the Shogun, and yet Kokomi is sure that not a single one of the things she was told in the effort to do so was false.
Kokomi can’t help the tiny smile that tugs at her lips as she rereads some of Miko’s more pointed thoughts on the competence of some of the authors working for the Yae Publishing House. It’s… freeing… to have someone like Miko to talk to, someone who understands how frustrating subordinates can be and isn’t afraid to talk about it with a bluntness Kokomi herself never would. Unlike Kokomi, Miko isn’t concerned with things like ‘being understanding’ or ‘looking for the best in people.’ Kokomi envies it a little, really, though she knows that way of being isn’t for her.
Perhaps most importantly, though, is that Miko treats Kokomi as an equal. For Kokomi, whose position has never allowed her to truly make friends, it’s a precious thing. Becoming the Divine Priestess had forced her to learn to overcome her introversion (to a certain extent, anyway… her recharge time is still a genuine need) in a way she doesn’t think would have happened otherwise, but it wasn’t in a way that allowed her to make friends. Even Gorou is her loyal general, not her loyal friend. Even Lumine is someone she had taken time to truly befriend, her guilt at having dragged the young woman into her war having precluded any kind of friendship until after Kokomi had already begun corresponding with Miko and considering the older woman something of a friend.
…Is it a sad thing that her very first real friend is the head priestess of a rival faith? An ancient and powerful fox spirit married to the deity who killed Kokomi’s own ancestor, the dead god that the people of Watatsumi Island still revere even after all of this time? A wicked creature that Kokomi knows would have stood by the Shogun’s side in battle if it had come down to it, her love for her wife far more important to her than her disdain for the Shogunate’s recent policies?
…Probably. But it’s not like Kokomi has ever begrudged the Raiden Shogun for her actions all those many years ago, given it had been the Watatsumi Omikami who initiated hostilities without any prompting from the Shogunate. How could she blame the Narukami for protecting her people? Kokomi’s own actions this past year were born from exactly the same kind of choice.
A god had hurt the Raiden Shogun’s people, had invaded their homes and sought to take their resources for himself, and so she had struck him down to defend them.
A god had hurt Kokomi’s people, seeking to steal away their ambitions and (even more importantly, to Kokomi) instituting a policy that further harmed their already-limited ability to trade for much-needed resources, and so she had stood up against the heavens with word and spell as she sought to learn why the normally-kind god had turned on her people in such an abrupt way.
Even so…
Kokomi can’t help but believe that the blood of the civil war is on her hands more than it is the Shogun’s. If she hadn’t started the Resistance, nobody else would have dared… and the direct harm of the Vision Hunt Decree had been incredibly limited in scope given the rarity of Visions and the fact that not all of those who had their Visions taken had suffered negative effects. The fact that so many soldiers on both sides died, that civilians had ended up caught in the crossfire and killed or displaced by both armies… none of that was a direct result of the Vision Hunt Decree.
It was the result of Kokomi’s choice to start a war.
Across an entire year, fewer than one hundred Visions had been seized. Less even than the official count, given Kokomi knows more than a few were fake Visions distributed by the Resistance.
With numbers like those… with numbers like those, if Kokomi didn’t know the value of ambition, if she instead truly believed that Visions were in some way harmful…
If she had been in the Raiden Shogun’s position while holding such beliefs, she might have made the same choice. Kokomi can see it all too clearly, in fact: Her Excellency Sangonomiya Kokomi, the Divine Shogun, and her Vision Hunt Decree… Sacrificing the happiness of a tiny handful of her subjects in order to preserve that of the many.
And so it is not the Vision Hunt Decree that Kokomi most opposed, no matter what it was that she told her people. Ambition is precious and something she truly wanted to defend, it’s not that it was a lie: the words she’d spoken to Lumine about how priceless aspiration is and how nobody should ever have it stolen from them were heartfelt and did contribute to her decision. However…
The indirect harm done by the Sakoku Decree had scared her far more than a Vision Hunt Decree that would affect only five people on Watatsumi Island, including herself… and Kokomi knows deep in her heart that had she been the only Vision-holder on the island and the Sakoku Decree not loomed over them, she would have given her Vision up without a fight in order to preserve her people’s peace.
But the Sakoku Decree existed, and was the worse, more harmful piece of policy by far. It had damaged the Narukami side of things enormously, ensuring a slow and creeping death as the people of Narukami burned through their storehouses. But for Watatsumi Island…
Kokomi’s barren island, empty of fertile land, has always struggled with resource shortages even at the best of times. The Sakoku Decree had been pushing them towards a crisis, one that she’d hidden from her people to the best of her ability because she hadn’t wanted them to know just how close they were to what could have easily become a genuine extinction event as they all slowly starved to death. The fishermen of Watatsumi Island could only bring in so many fish, especially after the war had begun and the Shogunate’s ships were so often coming close enough to Watatsumi Island that their fishing hours and the distance they could roam had needed to be greatly curtailed to prevent them from being slaughtered. Kokomi had made a point of asking about fishing for her people in the preliminary negotiations with Kujou Sara for a reason.
The military had believed their sorely limited rations were for the sake of giving more to the civilians, and had accepted it as a part of their duty to protect the island… and the civilians had been led to believe the opposite, that it was the military that was receiving more supplies in order to aid the war effort, a sacrifice that most of the people had been willing to make without a fuss, especially since children, the sick, and the elderly received more than the rest. It had all been a delicate balancing act that had often left Kokomi shaking at night as she lay on her bedroll trying to find sleep.
She hadn’t wanted to accept the suspicious supplies that had turned out to be from the Fatui, but she had ultimately not had any choice. Without them, even the storehouses she’d done her best to stock for hard times would have quickly run dry and left her people starving. Beidou had done her best to help them, and Kokomi will be forever grateful to the captain for that, but there was only so much that the Crux Fleet could bring them, especially in light of Watatsumi Island’s increasing poverty. Operating at too much of a loss for an extended period of time wasn’t something that Beidou could have done, and Kokomi would never have asked it of her.
The fact that the price of her forced hand had turned out to be the lives of some of her soldiers through use of those horrible Delusions is something Kokomi regrets dearly, a pain in her heart that she thinks will never heal, but…
But if she had to do it all over again, even knowing what she knows now about it, she would have made the same choice. Her soldiers signed up to fight, they knew they could die… but without those supplies, civilians would have faced starvation as well. The cost of refusing the supplies might have been the lives of the weakest among them, children and the elderly and those already suffering from illness.
All Kokomi can do is weep as she makes her weekly offerings to the departed souls of the soldiers whose lives were traded for the sake of keeping the people of Watatsumi Island alive for even one more day.
…Of course, a hypothetical Kokomi who got a do-over would have simply gone right to Miko and asked for an audience with the Shogun rather than sending fruitless letters that she now suspects were discarded by corrupt officials rather than ever making it into the Shogun’s hands, and from her new understanding of the situation that probably would have solved the whole thing without a single drop of blood being spilled. The ease of it really underscores how pointless everything had been, how there had been so many unnecessary sacrifices.
Because that hypothetical Kokomi doesn’t exist, and the one that does is a mon—
Kokomi sighs and throws herself back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.
She was doing it again. Spiraling.
It’s something she was much more prone to when she was younger, before she’d become Divine Priestess and been forced to learn to catch herself early and redirect her negativity into productive action in order to not worry those around her.
The Kokomi of now, while in front of her people, must always be calm and decisive. She can’t get caught up in her head and lose herself.
But in private… it still happens sometimes. Like this.
Kokomi rises to her feet and strides to the deck of the ship as quickly as she can without appearing hurried. Right now, what she needs is the knowledge that there are eyes on her so that she can simply be the Divine Priestess and leave her fears behind, if only for a little while.
Maybe it’s not the healthiest of coping mechanisms… but it’s what she’s got.
Even hastened by Watatsumi Island’s sole Anemo Vision-holder as it is, this boat trip is going to make for a long, long two weeks.
Kokomi is grateful when they finally arrive at the Inazuma City docks. She glances up at the dark, cloudy sky as she steps off the boat and only just barely creates a shield of water to serve as an umbrella in time to avoid the first drops of rain. She’s grateful for the lights in the windows of the nearby shops as she sets out, as despite the fact that it’s only late afternoon it’s currently as dark as night.
She wonders whether it’s a natural storm or if someone has upset the Shogun. Hopefully it’s the former, because she’d rather not meet with a god in a foul mood.
She’s never been here before, her scant handful of trips to Narukami Island in the past always being to Ritou. It is Inazuma’s primary port, after all… but Inazuma City also borders the ocean, and so has smaller docks of its own for those who have business with the Shogun. It would, after all, be more than a little rude to ask diplomats (whether foreign or from the other islands of Inazuma) to make the weeks-long trip from Ritou to Inazuma City after already traveling the sea just to reach Narukami Island in the first place.
It’s at times like this that Kokomi finds herself dearly envying Lumine’s ability to zap everywhere with Waypoints. She wonders if she can find a way to imitate it.
She allows her feet to carry her towards Tenshukaku. It’s her first time in the city, but that route could not be more obvious — the Shogun’s dwelling absolutely towers over the land. Kokomi has always felt that Sangonomiya Shrine appeared excessively large, but next to the height and sprawl of Tenshukaku it might as well be a shack. If she weren’t aware that, like Sangonomiya Shrine, Tenshukaku serves as the center of government and most of that space is likely used up for necessary official functions, she would think it the most arrogant building she’s ever seen (though she’s heard from Beidou of a flying palace in Liyue, and that sounds even more ostentatious).
Given it is the seat of government for an entire nation rather than just the Shogun’s home, though, Kokomi can admire it for what it is: a remarkably sturdy fortress, built in a defensible location with strong walls and enough space within that she suspects most if not all of the people of Inazuma City could evacuate inside and be protected in the case of an emergency.
Given Inazuma City is by far the largest city in the nation and has thousands upon thousands of residents…
Well, maybe there is a lot of unused space in Tenshukaku, after all… but Kokomi is willing to bet that was by design for exactly the scenario she’s just imagined. If Kokomi can think that up, surely the Shogun already would have, given that her writings on war that Kokomi has studied are the most brilliant treatises of strategy she’s ever seen.
“Halt,” a soldier commands as she approaches the massive gate. “State your name and purpose.”
Kokomi obeys, pausing a respectful distance from the towering structure. It looks even bigger up close, and makes her keenly aware of her own small size.
“Sangonomiya Kokomi, Divine Priestess of Watatsumi Island, here to meet with Her Excellency the Shogun on matters of state,” Kokomi declares, bowing shallowly.
“Sangonomiya… Yes, we were told to expect you, Your Excellency,” the soldier says, returning her bow with one so deep that Kokomi half-wonders if the man had been instructed to show her the same reverence he would the Shogun herself. “Okita! Get over here, Her Excellency the Divine Priestess has arrived!”
A younger soldier hurries over and offers a bow that, while far sloppier than the gate guard’s, is no less deep.
“It’s an honor to have you as a guest, Your Excellency,” Okita says, an oddly squeaky note in his voice that disappears as he continues. “Please, follow me. Her Excellency the Shogun requested that you be given a chance to store your things in the rooms set aside for you and then brought straight to her office upon your arrival, unless you require rest, in which case you may call for a servant whenever you feel ready for your meeting. Do you have an escort? We have chambers prepared for them as well.”
“Thank you,” Kokomi says, inclining her head. “I would appreciate the chance to place my bags in my room, but after that I’m more than ready to meet with Her Excellency. And no, I chose to come alone.”
It’s a sign of trust, one she’d argued about with her shrine maidens and with Gorou for weeks. Kokomi is perfectly capable of defending herself from ordinary foes — no soldier on Watatsumi Island is capable of overcoming any enemy that Kokomi herself cannot — and if the Raiden Shogun wishes harm on her then the entirety of Inazuma combined would be helpless to stop her.
She had laughed in Gorou’s face when he’d tried to suggest Kazuha could be borrowed from Beidou as a bodyguard. She’s heard about the wanderer’s little trick of blocking a strike from the Shogun, but given it required two Visions, Kokomi is more than certain it wasn’t anything remotely like a full-power swing, and, oh yes, Lumine had told her that Kazuha had been casually swatted away immediately afterward…
A rematch between Kazuha and the Shogun would not go well for the poor samurai. No, bringing an escort would have been pure vanity, and she’d rather simply demonstrate to the Shogun her willingness to trust that the other woman means her no harm.
Okita gives her a nervous smile as he straightens up, then sets off at a quick trot that requires Kokomi to half-jog to keep up with. If it weren’t for his obvious anxiety and desire to get the task over with as soon as possible, Kokomi might have thought he was trying to make her look silly as she chases after him… but she can forgive a young soldier uncomfortable with being given the duty of escorting an important official like herself for being overly hasty.
What she’s more interested in is the fact that the Shogun seems to have decided to allow Kokomi to set the terms of the meeting, as she has no doubt that the offer to let her rest first was genuine. It’s possible that there was a test underlaying it, to see just how committed Kokomi is to getting the negotiations started for real, but… that sounds more like something that Miko or Kokomi herself would do rather than the Shogun Miko has told her about. It’s unlikely that choosing to rest would have hurt her position in the coming talks.
If Kokomi allows herself to rest now, though, in this unfamiliar and intimidating setting, before actually meeting with the Shogun and getting a feel for how negotiations will go… she knows she’ll end up a nervous wreck the entire time, right up until she needs to lock it away for the sake of being the Divine Priestess again. No, it’s for the best that she meet with the Shogun as soon as possible.
She’s only a little bit tired, anyway.
The rooms that she’s been allotted for the trip are nice, though she only gets a short look at them as she sets down her bags. She hasn’t brought anything sensitive with her except for her scenario notebooks, which are in the smaller bag she’s keeping on herself, so she’s not exactly concerned about spies going through her things.
She has subtly trapped them such that she’ll be able to tell if they’ve been disturbed though, of course. While there’s not much she’d be able to do about it, and it’s very plausible that such a search could be ordered by whatever intelligence officials the Shogunate has without it being the will of the Shogun herself, she’d at least like to know.
When the trip to the Shogun’s office proves a matter of only minutes, Kokomi realizes why her rooms had been so nice: she’s been given lodgings in the Shogun’s own section of Tenshukaku. The revelation almost makes her miss a step.
The Shogun must be insane. Allowing Kokomi so deep into the heart of her home, without any assurances that Kokomi won’t be snooping around…
…Kokomi won’t be, of course, but she could. It’s a gesture of trust that Kokomi finds herself slightly humbled by. She wouldn’t have done the same had their positions been reversed, she knows that.
Kokomi thanks Okita for his assistance, then knocks on the door of the office.
“Come in!” a voice calls, surprisingly gentle despite the tone of authority it carries.
Kokomi steels herself and opens the door.
And stares.
“Oh! Your Excellency Sangonomiya,” the Raiden Shogun says brightly, what seems to be genuine excitement shining clearly in her eyes. “I was hoping that it would be you! Welcome, please take a seat. I was just dealing with some paperwork, but it’s nothing that can’t wait. I hope your trip wasn’t too difficult? I’m sorry about the weather, but I generally try not to interfere too much with natural storms. It can throw nature out of balance.”
Kokomi slowly and carefully sits down in the indicated chair, doing her best not to stare at how Miko has apparently decided not only to invite herself to what Kokomi had thought was going to be a one-on-one meeting, but has done so by making herself very comfortable in the Shogun’s lap. She knows that Miko is supposed to be pregnant right now, but… given she doesn’t seem to be showing, Kokomi supposes she’s used some strange kitsune trick to hide it and allow herself to squeeze into the narrow space between the Shogun and the edge of the desk.
“Don’t mind me,” Miko says, voice far too smug. “Pretend I’m not even here and have your meeting — I’ll be so quiet you don’t even notice me.”
Kokomi kind of doubts she can just pretend that Miko isn’t here, but… she’ll do her best.
“Thank you, Lady Narukami,” Kokomi murmurs, bowing in her seat until her forehead presses against the desk. “I’m deeply grateful for the mercy you’ve chosen to show my people thus far, despite the fact that we dared war against you not once but twice.”
“Raise your head, Your Excellency,” the Shogun says gently. “I could never hold the tragedy of a war that happened two thousand years ago against the people of today’s Watatsumi Island, and the war this past year was entirely of my own making. Rather than punish you, I would rather sing my praises for your bravery and honor in resisting my devastating mistakes to all of Inazuma.”
Kokomi lifts her head just enough to give the Shogun an incredulous stare, but it appears that the god is entirely serious.
The Shogun is taking credit for Kokomi’s war.
“It was I who declared war against the Vision Hunt Decree,” Kokomi says carefully. “You weren’t the one who initiated it. From what Miko told me, you didn’t even know about it.”
Frustration flashes across the Shogun’s face, and she glares at the fox in her lap.
“Miko,” the Shogun hisses. “I told you not to tell her that.”
Miko shrugs unrepentantly, and the Shogun groans and turns desperate eyes to Kokomi.
“Please tell me you haven’t told anyone,” the Shogun half-begs.
“…I haven’t,” Kokomi says. “Isn’t it something that you should be trying to publicize, though?”
“Absolutely not,” the Shogun declares, slamming the hand that isn’t wrapped around Miko down on the table with a loud thump. “If I were to do such a thing and people were to believe it, it would distract from how badly I failed at protecting Inazuma, and might lead more people to hold the same incorrect belief that you seem to.”
“Incorrect belief?” Kokomi asks.
“That the war was your fault,” the Shogun says, her scowl twisting up into a sad, reluctant smile. “It wasn’t, Your Excellency. Every life, every ambition, is precious. When the Vision Hunt Decree was proposed, I allowed it to proceed forward because I thought that the reasoning Kujou Takayuki laid out made sense: that Visions are rare enough that very few would be affected, and that individual ambition can lead to great suffering. The latter… is still true, I don’t think I was wrong to believe in that. But the former… as rare as Visions are, I should still have treasured the dreams of their holders as dearly as those without them. There are other ways to protect the people, ways that should be pursued rather than attempting something so foolish as stealing the wishes of my people. I swear to you, Your Excellency, it’s a mistake I will never repeat.”
Kokomi watches silently as Miko’s long fingers gently brush away the Shogun’s tears.
“In allowing the Vision Hunt Decree to proceed, I declared war on the entirety of my people,” the Shogun says quietly. “That’s not how I saw it, but it’s what it was. Visions are strikingly rare, and only a fraction of a fraction of the population will ever manifest them. I’ve been told that the majority of the people of Inazuma found no issue with the Vision Hunt Decree, as it affected neither them nor anybody that they knew. However… while I am not at liberty to go into the true details of how Visions are granted, I can say this: anyone with a strong enough desire has at least a chance that they might find the other requirements fulfilled and obtain a Vision. As anyone could end up discovering such a desire… How could the Vision Hunt Decree be called anything but a declaration that my people were no longer allowed to dream? You, who stood up against my foolish cruelty and rallied others to your side to defend the nobility of the wishes people hold in their hearts… You are nothing less than a hero. Far more of one than I have ever been, and I want the people of Inazuma to see that.”
Kokomi takes a shuddering breath as she tries to process the Shogun’s words.
Nothing about this is going as she’d expected. She doesn’t have a single scenario that had covered this. She’d been prepared for the Shogun to drive a hard bargain, or for the Shogun to want to put things behind them as quickly as possible, or even for the Shogun to try to arrange a political marriage between them to calm lingering hostilities, among many other possible scenarios.
But despite how much time she’d devoted to thinking about how this could go, Kokomi hadn’t been able to conceive of the idea that the Shogun would actively desire her people to vilify her while seeking to uplift Kokomi’s public image.
“Do you… want your people to fear you, Your Excellency?” Kokomi manages.
“No,” the Shogun denies, shaking her head. “No… and as unfair of me as it is, I hope they don’t even now. But I do want them to understand that I failed them and that I’m now taking steps to be better, to be the Shogun they deserve rather than the Shogun that they’re stuck with. You, Your Excellency, are the model I now strive to emulate.”
Kokomi finds herself smiling at that, if only a little. It’s a familiar sentiment, one she’d had back when she was first forced into the position of Divine Priestess… and one she still struggles with to this day.
“Please, just call me Kokomi,” Kokomi says softly. “I’m far from a perfect leader, but… I’d be happy to help advise you, if you’ll have me.”
“Of course I will,” the Shogun accepts immediately. “And… you can call me ‘Ei.’”
“Ei,” Kokomi murmurs, half-tasting the name.
How many people are aware of the Raiden Shogun’s name? She can’t imagine it’s more than a few.
“You know,” Miko drawls, startling Kokomi out of her thoughts — contrary to her expectations, she almost had forgotten the older priestess’s presence. “You two have exactly the same expression when you’re thinking deeply. It’s adorable.”
The slight tension is broken, and Kokomi finds herself giggling along with Ei.
Kokomi’s shoulders relax, and she gives Ei a genuine smile.
“Please forgive me for asking, Ei, but… how is it possible that you didn’t know about the war?” Kokomi asks. “It’s clearly true, but…”
“But it sounds absurd,” Ei finishes for her.
Kokomi nods, glad that it’s the god who said it rather than herself. As kind as Ei has been thus far, she’d rather not push her luck too far.
“I… was not the one ruling Inazuma, all this time,” Ei sighs. “It was a… proxy, of sorts, one I made in my image, though admittedly not so much in terms of personality… and her focus was so completely on Eternity that given none of the reports that the Tri-Commission submitted to her mentioned anything about a war, she was unaware of its existence. Miko has advised me that it’s too early in our relationship for me to go into the full details, but if you ask it of me I’ll tell you everything. If nothing else, please understand that I was aware of the Vision Hunt Decree and could have prevented it had I chosen to do so. I did not. The fact that the one serving as Shogun was a proxy does nothing to absolve me of my responsibility for the tragedies that the Vision Hunt Decree brought about.”
Miko gives Kokomi a hard stare, but yelps when Ei’s hand comes down on her head in a light chop.
“None of that, Miko,” Ei scolds. “It’s up to her. Truly. After all the harm I’ve done, the least I can do is give her the full truth, if she asks it of me.”
Kokomi swallows.
The full truth is… important. It’s something she needs to learn eventually, she knows that. What she’s heard now is insufficient to serve as an acceptable explanation for Ei’s neglect of Inazuma.
But… does she need to know right now?
Miko is right that it’s early in their relationship, that trust needs time to grow. The full truth would unquestionably be a boon to that, would help Kokomi trust Ei more given everything would have been brought out into the light…
But the pain in Ei’s eyes tells Kokomi that the full story is something deeply personal to the god. The fact that she’s willing to tell Kokomi despite that…
That in itself is a gesture of trust from Ei that Kokomi is willing to take as equivalent to the actual telling of the truth. The entirety of it will be there whenever Kokomi chooses to ask, but she hopes that she won’t have to. That once they’ve grown closer, Ei will feel that she can tell Kokomi the story on her own.
Kokomi would much rather pursue that than make Ei uncomfortable now for the sake of building trust that has already been created just by the existence of the offer.
“Later,” Kokomi says, smiling gently. “Thank you for offering to tell me, but that can come in its own time when you’re ready. There’s no rush.”
The heartbreakingly beautiful, grateful smile Ei gives her tells Kokomi that she made the right choice.
“Ultimately, it was a combination of corruption within the Tri-Commission and my abandonment of my duty to Inazuma that allowed the civil war to proceed as it did,” Ei says. “I hadn’t prepared my proxy to be able to handle anything like the rot that had set into two-thirds of the Tri-Commission, and she proved uniquely vulnerable to their tactics. There are a great many things I need to make reparations for before Inazuma can even dream of healing, and I hope that your assistance will ensure I’m held to the standard I must be.”
“I’ll do my best,” Kokomi promises.
“Thank you,” Ei says. She lets out a heavy sigh. “Enacting real change in the Tri-Commission is going to be… difficult. The leading clans for the Tenryou and Kanjou Commissions have become dangerously corrupt, but there’s no real alternative at this time to clan-based rule. I’d like to set things up to improve the paths to high positions for those outside of the clans so that I can eventually phase out the importance of the clans entirely, which would do a great deal to prevent the particular kind of corruption that we’re currently suffering from, but…”
A tired smile works itself onto Ei’s lips.
“Perhaps it’s wrong of me, but I’m a little glad that the Kamisato siblings appear to have decided that this will be the last generation of their clan,” she says. “Ayaka has made it clear to me that any children she has won’t be subjected to the burdens she was growing up, and her brother… well, I don’t think children are in his future. The Yashiro Commission is already the model I’ll be seeking to emulate in the restructuring of the other two Commissions, as the reduced size of the Kamisato clan and Ayato’s distrust of their vassal clans has already resulted in many qualified outsiders holding high positions. If the Yashiro Commission passes entirely out of the hands of the clans and continues to function well, it will help give me an excuse to push for the same sort of structure in the others ‘to be safe.’”
“…I hadn’t thought it was so difficult for you to make changes,” Kokomi admits. “On Watatsumi Island, all governance is handled by myself and my shrine maidens, and I suppose I had assumed that the Shogun was an absolute ruler as well.”
“In theory, I am,” Ei agrees. “But in practice, I can’t act so arbitarily unless I wish to be seen as a tyrant… even more so than I may already be after this last year, anyway. It would hardly fit the reformed image I’m attempting to project if I were to suddenly cast down the entirety of the system people know and put in its place one that better suits my desires, would it?”
“No, I suppose it wouldn’t,” Kokomi agrees.
She allows herself to fall into her thoughts for a moment as she watches Miko massage Ei’s shoulders.
Part of her is glad that Ei is being cautious in her reforms. It suggests that the god is genuine in her intentions of being a ruler the people can trust, one who will listen to them and not simply cast down her decrees from on high. The attitude she’s displaying is one that Kokomi can work with, and that she hopes will ultimately help her demonstrate to the people of Watatsumi Island that Ei can be trusted.
On the other…
Substantial immediate changes are required to the relationship between the Narukami and Watatsumi sides of Inazuma in order to cool tensions and help the people understand that they really are at peace now, that things are improving. She hopes that Ei hasn’t become cautious to the point of foolishness.
“How were the first Commissioners chosen, anyway?” Kokomi asks, more to stall for time to consider her response than out of genuine interest… though the history fan in her does want to hear the answer. “Were they already the leaders of prominent clans?”
“The leaders of the Tri-Commission were originally chosen for their ability, not their clan status,” Ei reminisces, shaking her head. “The first head of the Tenryou Commission, for example. When it came time to choose a leader for the newly-planned Commission, the greatest warriors in the land were gathered together and given a simple challenge: the one who could defeat me in battle would be named Commissioner of the Tenryou Commission, and given permission to found a clan.”
Kokomi gapes, thoughts derailed.
“But… that was an impossible challenge, right?” she stammers. “No human could have won that fight. How did the Kujou end up in charge of the Tenryou Commission…?”
“It was intended as an impossible task, yes,” Ei agrees, bowing her head with a smile. “I was sorely disappointed by just how many people gave up the moment I spoke those words. Of the few who dared face me, all of them accepted their defeat within the first few clashes of our blades… and then came the man who would later be known as Kujou Hideyoshi. He wasn’t the most skilled of the warriors I faced that day, nor the strongest, nor the fastest… but he refused to give up. Every time I put him down he rose to his feet again, bloodied but unbroken, until he physically couldn’t anymore. Even then, more bruise than man, face and body streaked with his own blood as he lay helpless on the ground, his hand twitched for his sword.”
“He sounds like he was an impressive man,” Kokomi murmurs, biting her lip. “And… please forgive me for saying this, but… an ambitious one. The sort of person who… might earn a Vision.”
“He was,” Ei agrees, sighing heavily. “He was, and the Geo Vision he gained a few short years later was certainly proof of that. He was a noble, determined man, and exactly what I had been seeking for the job. Someone who wouldn’t simply give up in the face of impossible odds, but would choose to fight to the last breath. It’s disappointing to see what has become of his descendants… and to consider how foolishly I spat on the very thing I had once prized so highly when I allowed the Vision Hunt Decree to move forward. There was a time, long ago, when I did understand the value of ambition. A time when I pursued the heights of martial ability alongside my fellow youkai long before the unification of Inazuma, long before I became a god to the humans. Even in those early days I remembered and cherished it… but after those horrible events five hundred years ago, I forgot many things as my grief overwhelmed me. I am not proud of who I became, Kokomi, and I hope to prove to you that I can be better.”
“You’ve already made great strides in that direction,” Kokomi assures her softly. “I can’t and won’t forget what happened this last year, but I believe in your good intentions and in your kindness, and I trust in your promise never to let something like this happen again.”
And besides, she does not say, no matter what you seem to think, I am more to blame for the war that ravaged Inazuma’s people than you. Next to my bloody hands, yours are as clean as they could possibly be.
“Thank you,” Ei murmurs. “Hearing that from you means a lot. But I still have a long way to go, and I can’t allow myself to forget that.”
After a moment of silence, Ei smiles again.
“Enough heavy talk about my problems,” she says. “I’m more than happy to answer any other questions about the Narukami side of things that you have later, but right now I want to focus on what you need from me to help the people of Watatsumi. Miko gave me the list you two drew up during your meeting, I have it right… here.”
Kokomi watches as Ei skillfully withdraws a paper covered in Miko’s elegant brushwork from the pile on her desk.
“Are these still your top priorities, or has anything else come up that supersedes them?” Ei asks.
Kokomi scans the list, then nods.
“These are still the ones,” she confirms. “The most important is the trade situation. We’re at the absolute limit of our ability to keep ourselves afloat right now, and without swift action we will have a famine soon.”
Ei massages the bridge of her nose, grimacing.
“I can’t believe that she— that I left this unaddressed for all these years,” she murmurs. “Two thousand years since I struck down your god, and your resource situation has still been left unaddressed…? That’s… I would have done something had I…”
“Ei,” Miko murmurs, cupping her cheeks between her hands and forcing the god to look into her eyes. “This problem is one that is truly not your fault. It’s hers, and you must accept that — and that you now have a chance to make it right.”
‘She?’ ‘Hers?’
Kokomi doesn’t think Ei and Miko were talking about Kokomi herself, the context doesn’t allow for it… but she also doesn’t dare ask right now, suspecting it may be tied to the ‘full truth’ behind Ei’s choice to hide behind a proxy ruler.
“Right,” Ei sighs. “Right. I’ll push a bill to ensure that Watatsumi Island will pay no taxes on any resources it’s suffering a shortage of through the Kanjou Commission as quickly as I can, but the process will likely still take a few months… I would offer you some of Narukami’s food in the meantime, but truthfully the damage the Sakoku Decree wreaked has left us little better off than Watatsumi Island right now. There has to be something we can do…”
“Just authorize the Foreign Trade Association to do under-the-table trade with Watatsumi Island until the bill has passed,” Miko yawns, resting her head on Ei’s shoulder. “Surely Kokomi’s clever little brain can come up with a way for enough of Watatsumi Island’s trading goods to go ‘missing’ and find themselves exchanged for much-needed supplies… Sango Pearls are still quite valuable, all the more so given how rarely they appear on the market.”
“…And we can trade Crystal Marrow as well,” Kokomi says quietly. “We seized quite a lot of it when we took Yashiori Island, and in the worst case scenario we can mine more.”
“…Are you certain?” Ei asks, eyes widening. “Its value has certainly gone up since I ordered production halted, but I did so because my understanding was that it was an understandable point of contention with the people of Watatsumi Island. It was never intended as a way to defile Orobashi’s body — I would never allow such a thing to be done, it goes against everything I believe in — and rather as a way to safely remove the lingering curse of a dead god’s power from the land, but… I don’t think the necessity of that was ever clearly communicated to the people of Watatsumi Island, and we should have involved you all in the process from the start.”
“Miko told me all of that during our meeting,” Kokomi says, gazing down at her hands. “I would be lying if I said I were entirely comfortable using my ancestor’s bones as trading materials, and I do want us to collaborate on the cleansing of his curse as we move forward, but… if he loved his people as much as my family histories claim, it’s what he would want me to do.”
“He did,” Ei hisses, leaning forward, an almost desperate look on her face. “Please, never doubt that. He loved you all so, so much.”
“O-Okay,” Kokomi stammers, leaning back. “…I wouldn’t have thought that you would defend him like that, given you…”
“Killed him?” Ei finishes weakly. “…Before that, we were friends, he and I. I respected him greatly. I never, ever wanted to strike him down, Kokomi.”
Kokomi nods, a lump in her throat refusing to go away no matter how many times she swallows.
“Miko’s plan is viable from my side,” she says, trying to change the subject. “Are you willing to provide the Foreign Trade Association the necessary authorization so that they won’t get in trouble if we’re caught?”
She can probably get Beidou in on it too as a middleman between Watatsumi Island and the Foreign Trade Association — if the goods are ‘stolen by pirates’ it will be easier to disguise what’s going on, and she has no doubt that the smuggler would enjoy the job immensely.
“Of course,” Ei says, nodding sharply. “I’d like to ask that you be as careful as you can be to avoid such a situation, but if it happens I’ll ensure that neither you nor the Foreign Trade Association face punishment. The current situation is untenable, and sometimes laws must be broken for the good of the people.” Her lips twist into a small, genuine smile. “You showed me that.”
Kokomi blushes and looks away, fidgeting. She brings her hand to her face to cover up a yawn, surprised at how tired she feels all of a sudden.
“We’ve been talking for a while, and you had a long trip,” Ei says. “Would you like to call it here for today? I can make the arrangements with the Foreign Trade Association immediately, and we can resume our talks on the other matters tomorrow.”
“I’d like that, thank you,” Kokomi mumbles sleepily.
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Ei says. “Miko, could you please help her back to her rooms?”
“Of course,” Miko purrs, rising to her feet. “It would be my pleasure.”
The kitsune waves off Kokomi’s weak protests and practically drags her out the door, arm around her waist keeping her pressed closely to the older priestess’s side.
Ei’s “Sleep well, Kokomi!” is the last thing Kokomi hears before the door swings shut behind them, and she’s alone in the Tenshukaku hallway with Yae Miko.
“Thank you, Kokomi,” Miko murmurs, voice surprisingly sincere.
“For…?” Kokomi asks.
“Not pushing Ei,” Miko says. “She will tell you everything eventually, but right now…”
“I can wait,” Kokomi promises. “…She’s a good person, isn’t she?”
“She’s a fool who rarely thinks through her choices,” Miko replies quietly. “She rashly takes action in the way she believes is right as soon as she identifies something she believes to be a problem, and when she’s unlucky it ends up hurting the people around her. But…”
Kokomi looks up, then immediately away.
The sad, loving smile on Miko’s face is heartbreaking.
“Yes, she’s a good person,” Miko concludes. “The best in all the world.”
“She seems to be trying to think things through now,” Kokomi offers quietly.
“She is,” Miko agrees. “And it’s sincere. But I know my Ei, and even doing her best it won’t be easy for her to go against her nature. You and I will need to keep her on track until she becomes used to it… and even with both of us together, I have no doubt she’ll manage a handful of remarkable errors in the next few years.”
“Then we’ll just have to help her solve them before it’s too late,” Kokomi yawns.
“That we will,” Miko agrees, a note Kokomi can’t identify in her voice. “That we will. Sleep well, little fish.”
Kokomi offers Miko a tired smile, then steps into her rooms.
Her bags are untouched, none of their careful traps having been set off. Inazuma’s spies might simply be incredibly good at their jobs, but given the way the meeting had gone Kokomi is much more inclined to think that Ei had specifically ordered her things be left alone.
She smiles as she changes into her nightdress and crawls into the surprisingly-comfortable bed. The meeting hadn’t gone anything like any of the scenarios she’d envisioned, but…
Kokomi thinks that in this case, reality had proven itself exactly what she needed. Ei is neither impossibly perfect nor impossibly cruel: she’s a flawed person who cares and in whom Kokomi can already see a great deal of herself.
And if there’s one person Kokomi knows how to deal with, it’s Kokomi.
As she drifts off to sleep, smile still on her face…
Kokomi has more hope for the future than she’s held in a long, long time.