Work Text:
The students’ otherwise peaceful walk to the cafeteria after classes let out was interrupted by a voice shouting “Coming through! Please move! Make way!”
Todoroki, Bakugo, Uraraka, and Yaoyorozu all instinctively pressed themselves against the wall. Midoriya and Kirishima just stood there, looking for the source of the noise.
“Ack! Ivanna, stop the cart!”
“Easier said than done!”
Kirishima and Midoriya turned around just in time to see a cart full of strange metal objects and what looked like an entire claymore stop only inches before running them over.
“What are you two doing?” A pink-haired girl in a red outfit asked, the same girl who had been shouting a moment ago. “We just said to—“
“Please move, I need to get this cart through and we are VERY short on time!” A second person shouted, poking her head out from around the cart, looking panicked. Her dark blue hair fell over the brass goggles she wore, and she pushed it out of the way.
“Ivanna, Charlotte, what are you two doing?” Aether approached the group, and all of the UA students eyed him warily.
“No time to explain!” Ivanna interrupted, “Seriously, please get out of the way so that we can move, unless you want an active ruin grader wreaking havoc!”
“A ruin—“
“Yes! It activated unexpectedly, I don’t know how long we have until it wakes up, and we left Furina, so move it!”
Finally, Kirishima and Midoriya stepped back against the wall, and Ivanna barreled forward with the cart, Charlotte running beside her.
It was Midoriya who got the strength to speak first.
“What’s a ruin grader?”
“An extremely dangerous machine that she should not be activating,” Aether replied, folding his arms.
Neuvillette approached next, stepping beside Aether. “I gave her permission to attempt assembling one, but I explicitly told her not to install its power cell. The fact that she ignored my instructions is concerning.”
“Very,” Aether agreed.
“Um,” Uraraka spoke up, “are you just going to leave her with it? You just said that it’s dangerous!”
How could teachers be so neglectful? was the unspoken thought passed between the UA students.
“Of course not,” Neuvillette said. “Ivanna is too crafty to get seriously hurt, particularly with Charlotte by her side, but I do not like the idea of leaving them and Furina alone with that machine.”
“No time to waste,” Aether said, and took off down the hall. Neuvillette followed.
“Can I come?” Yaoyorozu asked, hesitantly, already jogging to keep up. “If it’s a special machine—“
Aether grimaced, but Yaoyorozu was banking on him not having time to argue, and she was right. “Fine, but stay behind me. Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to engage.”
The three of them sped down the hall to the room that Aether called the workshop. Yaoyorozu heard loud noises and what seemed to be clanging from inside. Aether threw open the door, revealing Charlotte and Ivanna, alongside someone that Yaoyorozu didn’t recognize. Charlotte had a camera in her hand, Ivanna held a claymore, and the third girl had a sword. All of them were circled around a massive machine, at least twice their size. Yaoyorozu’s mouth fell open. What was that thing?
“You three—“ Aether started.
“We’ve got it handled!” Ivanna yelled before he could finish. “Lottie, Furina, on three!
“One!” The machine stood slowly stood up, turning around the room, as if looking at the occupants.
“Two!” Ivanna shouted, raising her sword in a defensive position. The machine turned on her, and the large area in front of its face began to light up. As that happened, two parts of its legs began to glow orange.
“Three!”
The moment that Ivanna yelled, the third girl, who must be Furina, raised her sword. “Yoo-hoo!”
Three… animals, or something resembling them, appeared. They looked like animals, but they were made entirely out of water. As they formed, they splashed the massive machine. At the same time, Yaoyorozu heard a click, and upon turning, saw Charlotte had knelt on one knee and was holding up her camera. Before Yaoyorozu’s eyes, the machine froze. Ivanna didn’t hesitate to move and slammed the blade of her claymore into the glowing part of one leg. The ice shattered immediately, releasing the machine, and it stumbled.
“That’s one! Again!” Ivanna said, already lifting her claymore. The motion repeated, with the water animals splashing the machine, it freezing in place with the click of a camera’s shutter, and Ivanna slamming her blade into its other leg.
“That’s two! Again!”
A third time. Splash. Click. Freeze. Ivanna slammed the tip of her sword into the glowing part on the machine’s body, and it fell to the ground.
“Lottie, help me get its eye out!”
The two of them surged forward. Furina maneuvered around to get a bright blue toolbox, and then handed it to Ivanna in exchange for her claymore as she and Charlotte began to remove something from the machine’s giant body. It fell to the floor a moment later, and Ivanna and Charlotte stepped back into line with Furina.
The three of them stared at the fallen machine, breathing heavily, before they all started cheering.
“We did it!” Charlotte cheered, snapping pictures with her camera. Luckily, they did not appear to freeze anything this time.
“We did!” Ivanna said, still panting. “Furina, your, uh— your salon—“
“Oh!” Furina startled, then tapped her sword against the ground with a flourish. “Begone, my Salon Members! I call forth the Singer of Many Waters!”
Ivanna breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you!” She wrapped her arms around Furina in a hug, which then turned into what appeared to be Ivanna going limp against her.
“Ivanna!” Furina protested, seeming unworried.
“Gimme a sec, I’m the one who had to hit the thing,” Ivanna replied, muffled against Furina’s shoulder.
“Ivanna,” Neuvillette said. Yaoyorozu grimaced at his stern tone. Aizawa had used one just like it on more than one occasion. Ivanna seemed to recognize it, too, and winced.
“Lottie and I both agreed that Furina should summon the salon members despite the consequences,” she said, lifting her head but not looking at him. “We were both well aware, but there was no way for us to pull that off without them because I can’t apply Hydro fast enough.”
“That is not what I wanted to talk about,” Neuvillette said, crossing his arms.
Ivanna pried herself off of Furina and looked at him. “Oh. Then what is it?”
“I believe I specifically instructed you not to install the ruin machine’s power cell.”
“Oh, yeah. I didn’t.”
“…Pardon?”
“I didn’t,” Ivanna repeated. She pointed to an object sitting on a table. “That’s the power cell.”
“Okay, then how was it active?” Aether asked. “Because we all just saw it.”
“Great question!” Ivanna chirped. “Did you guys know that ruin machines like this have multiple backups?”
“Many complicated machines have redundancies, yes,” Aether said. “You’ve said that yourself.”
“Yeah. That right there, on the table? What we all thought was the main power cell? That’s the backup.”
“What do you mean?” Neuvillette asked.
“I mean that’s the backup,” Ivanna repeated. “These things actually have four power cells that I know of, and every single one can auto-repair using power from the others. As we just found out by installing them and activating the ruin machine. Turns out, it doesn’t need the backup to run.”
Yaoyorozu finally snapped back to reality. “The glowing parts of the machine.”
“Hey, a smart cookie!” Ivanna pointed a wrench at her. “That’s right. The three main ones—the legs and the eye—work in tandem to make sure the machine doesn’t go down. If one is damaged, the other two power the machine while the third repairs itself. If all three go down, the fourth one activates and the ruin grader engages an auto-repair. It just takes a second, hence why you’re able to stun it for a while. Dunno if there’s any others, so I’m taking out the eye. Seems the downside is that it needs all three of the main ones installed to function.” She looked at the broken machine warily. “I hope.”
Charlotte, meanwhile, was examining the eye that had been removed. “Uh, guys? I think this is broken beyond repair.”
“Well. That’s not ideal.” Ivanna kicked it. “Also, do you think we can source a new one of these?”
“No,” Aether said drily. “And you’re being supervised any time you’re working with ruin machines from now on.”
“Come on!” Ivanna protested. “Monsieur Neuvillette—“
“No,” Neuvillette said firmly. “But I will see about being one of the people who can supervise your work.”
Ivanna sighed. “Boooooo. Fine, I can work with that.”
“Good. Be sure to clean up,” Aether said. “I have other things I need to get to. Neuvillette, can you please keep an eye on them and make sure that they don’t get into any trouble?”
“Of course,” Neuvillette said.
“Sorry for dragging you two into this,” Ivanna turned towards Charlotte and Furina. “I didn’t think it would turn on.”
“Don’t worry! This’ll make a fantastic article for the Steambird,” Charlotte said, clicking through photos on her camera.
Furina smiled at her. “And I am pleased to lend you my assistance!”
“You’re both the best. Anyways, we better make sure this is contained within my station, and then I have more machines I want to test out. Care to help? Oh, and!” Ivanna turned to Yaoyorozu, pointing a wrench at her again. “Hey, smart cookie. Wanna play with mechanics?”
“Uh. Sure?” Yaoyorozu stammered.
——————
So, basically, Yaoyorozu was now stuck in the workshop with three Teyvat Academy students and more possibly-dangerous machinery than she had ever been around in her life. The ruin grader, as it had been called, was now covered with a tarp and firmly tied down. Yaoyorozu had asked if that would keep it restrained if it woke up again, to which she had gotten a disturbingly cheerful denial.
So, yeah, Yaoyorozu wasn’t too comfortable with that one. The other students, however, seemed perfectly relaxed. And she guessed that since there was a staff member nearby, he wouldn’t want anything that could damage the school’s reputation to happen, so they were probably safe.
Currently, Charlotte was sitting on the workbench and clicking through her camera while Ivanna worked. Furina seemed to be playing a hand game with one of her water creatures, occasionally pausing to reach for the toolbox and pass things over from it when asked. Ivanna had shown Yaoyorozu how to assemble a small device, which she was now fiddling with using one hand, and then started working on some round thing about the size of her head while Yaoyorozu studied the blueprint that got unceremoniously shoved at her.
“So, you’re one of the exchange students, yeah? I don’t think I introduced myself.” Ivanna looked up from her work and stuck a hand out. “Ivanna, resident inventor. I own a mechanics shop back in Fontaine, but right now I’m doing commission work only.”
“Is it due to your academy attendance?” Yaoyorozu asked, putting aside the blueprint and shaking it.
Ivanna nodded. “That’s right. I’ve got a few methods to contact me while I’m at the school, so it doesn’t hurt that bad, but you do need to actually go out of your way to make that contact if you want me to fix or build things. Furina steals most of my time.”
“You make good props!” Furina defended.
“I know, I’m the best in the business.” Ivanna seemed smug about this. “Also, I fix your cameras for free.”
“It’s the friendship discount,” Charlotte added.
“True!” Ivanna said, while Furina still looked slightly embarrassed. Huh, interesting.
“You said you own a mechanics shop? Aren’t you a student?” Yaoyorozu asked. Surely a student couldn’t own a business, right? That took so much time and focus and money…
“Yeah, not for long, though. I’m on an extremely fast-track program.”
“Ivanna is one of our older students,” Neuvillette confirmed, “like Furina. She was an extremely successful mechanic, and still is, despite moving to commission work while at the academy.”
“I’m mostly here for easy access to ruin machines,” Ivanna said with a shrug. “Except some people apparently think I need babysitting when I’m working with them.”
“I think today demonstrated exactly why supervision is now required,” Neuvillette said.
“Property damage?” Ivanna replied drily.
“Damage to your fellow students, especially those not equipped with Visions,” Neuvillette said, his voice stern. “While I know you are capable of handling yourself, most people at the school are not equipped to handle active ruin machines.” He paused, then added more gently, “And I would prefer you not run the risk of facing one alone.”
“I know, I know,” Ivanna sighed. “But we had it this time! We’re great at this, it’ll be fine.”
“Speak for yourself,” Furina said, “but I am not meant for fighting ruin graders! I’m still more of a… damsel in distress.”
“Of course, of course,” Ivanna said with a grin. “And I’ll be your knight in shining armor.”
“A knight that carries explosives?” Charlotte asked.
“Like all the best of them,” Ivanna said cheerfully. Before Yaoyorozu could say anything alarmed about the idea of Ivanna carrying explosives, she started talking again, turning back to Yaoyorozu.
“Anyways, like I was saying, I’m mostly here for access to ruin machines. Aether and Lumine wanted me to attend for at least a year before they could officially appoint me as a researcher. After this, I’m going back to Fontaine.”
“Are those… things common?” Yaoyorozu asked, eyeing the tarp.
“In Fontaine? Not really,” Ivanna said. “It’s mostly rogue meka, and those aren’t ancient. Some are pretty old, but we still have the know-how to make them. It’s different for ruin machines. Anyways, smart cookie, over here! Hold these for me, please— Lottie, where’d you put my screwdriver?”
She shoved the ball-shaped device into Yaoyorozu’s hands, and Yaoyorozu froze as she held it.
“In your toolbox,” Charlotte said.
“Thanks! Furina—“
Furina handed over the screwdriver without another word.
“Much appreciated! Alright, just keep that still for a sec.” Ivanna leaned in and screwed a line of screws into the machine. “Perfect! Thank you!” Ivanna took the device back. It looked like some strange insect with a glass window on top.
“What is that?”
“A three-dimensional projector. Probably.”
“Probably?”
“If it works. Lottie, Furina, smart cookie, it’s ready!”
Both Charlotte and Furina stopped what they were doing to gather around Ivanna.
“Monsieur Neuvillette! You too, get in here! It’s time to present my most magnificent creation!”
Yaoyorozu leaned closer. Almost against her will, she was curious just what it would do. Neuvillette walked up behind her, and she stiffened.
“Ah, am I standing too close? I apologize,” he said, and took a step back. Yaoyorozu released a breath, trying to relax her shoulders. She had to remember that these teachers were dangerous, and these students were brainwashed by a cult and probably kept in check by fear. Even if Ivanna had been casually bantering with him earlier, and seemed unfazed by his warnings.
“Monsieur Neuvillette, over here!” Ivanna chirped, opening a small panel on the side of the machine. He moved to stand beside her. “If this works, I’m buying everyone victory milkshakes.”
“What if it doesn’t?” Furina asked.
“Consolation milkshakes.”
“I’ll take it!” Charlotte chirped. Yaoyorozu shifted nervously. Would they invite her to come with them? Would that be safe for her? It would probably be outside the school, and she would be alone. With a group of Teyvat Academy students. Who could be dangerous.
Oh no.
Ivanna places her hand against the opening created by the panel, before water started pouring in.
“…What is that?” Yaoyorozu said, milkshake-related dangers forgotten as she remembered her mission. Study them. Get information. “Is that the power of a Vision?”
“Yeah. I have a Hydro Vision,” Ivanna said, seeming focused on channeling her power.
“Does this need a Vision to work?”
“Nah.” She shook her head. “But using Hydro is quicker than getting a jug of water to fill the tank.”
Ivanna latched the panel and placed the machine on the ground. It lit up, and a fine mist began to float out the top.
“Phase one, success!” Ivanna grinned, and the rest of the group cheered her on. “Now, lights.”
The glass disk lit up, and Yaoyorozu watched as flickers of… something… appeared in the mist. Ivanna groaned.
“Ah, we were so close,” Charlotte said.
“Yeah, I think some things are misaligned, and the angle’s wrong for the projection,” Ivanna said. “Prototype four, failure. I’ll mark it.” She turned the device off and headed for the chalkboard by her station.
Furina sighed. “So close…”
“Consolation milkshakes it is,” Ivanna said. “You’re coming too, Monsieur Neuvillette!”
Neuvillette blinked. “Would that not be—“
Furina interrupted him. “Oh, certainly! It just wouldn’t be complete without you.” She looked at him with too-wide eyes, as if playing up how much she would miss him if he wasn’t present. Ivanna, seeming to sense the dramatics, turned around and made a pleading face. Apparently, Neuvillette was weak to their team-up, because he relented after only a moment. Ivanna and Furina high-fived.
“Oh, and you’re coming too, right?” Ivanna turned on Yaoyorozu, brandishing her chalk like a weapon. “Tomorrow after class! We can meet at the front gates so you don’t get lost.”
“Uh.” Yaoyorozu looked at the group. There was four of them, one of which was a nation head, this could not end well for her. “Okay.”
…
Why did she say that? What was she going to tell her classmates? That she was leaving the school without them? With a potentially extremely dangerous teacher?
“Perfect! See you there!” Ivanna said.
———
As usual, the group of UA students met in Aizawa’s room. Yaoyorozu was still reeling from her earlier experience.
“So, what did everyone learn today?” Aizawa asked.
“I saw a machine the size of multiple people,” Yaoyorozu responded, without even thinking about it. “They let a student. Assemble that. In the school.”
All eyes turned to her, and Yaoyorozu deeply regretted her statement. Unfortunately, she had to elaborate now, because she’d already said it.
“The girl we ran into earlier is Ivanna, a mechanic. She re-built a machine they called a ruin grader, which is apparently a massive ancient machine.” Yaoyorozu elaborated. “Some of the students shut it down, but apparently it has a lot of ability to self-repair.”
Aizawa looked astonished. “And the staff just stood by?”
Yaoyorozu shook her head. “No. Aether and Neuvillette were both present and ready to handle it, but the three students took it down before they acted. After it was destroyed, Aether banned working on ruin machines without a teacher supervising, but otherwise let them go.”
Yaoyorozu could practically see the question written across her teacher’s face. If Bakugo had gotten such severe warnings for his behavior, why had these students, who could have caused significant damage, gotten off with just a slap on the wrist?
Yaoyorozu didn’t particularly want to answer that question, nor did she want to give out the other piece of information she was still hiding, so she kept quiet while her classmates shared the details they had learned today. They were interesting. Yaoyorozu couldn’t pay much attention. She was too busy trying to figure out how to tell everyone that she was going to get milkshakes tomorrow. With three students who had built and then taken down an apparently very dangerous machine. And a nation head who claimed to be a five-hundred-year-old-dragon.
Oh, dear.
Yaoyorozu decided against admitting this part in front of her fellow students, but she knew she would at least have to tell Aizawa that she was leaving campus.
“Mr. Aizawa,” she said as he was about to head back to his room, “I have one more thing I’d like to talk about.”
“What is it?” He turned back to her, raising an eyebrow.
“I’ve been invited to take a trip off-campus by some other students. Um. Three of them.”
Aizawa’s expression flattened. “Are these the students you met earlier?”
“Yeah. Ivanna invited me out. I think we’re just going to a café, or something.”
“And you have approval for this excursion?” Aizawa asked.
“Yeah, a staff member approved when the plan was made.” She paused. She had to tell him, but she really, really did not want to. “…Because he’s also coming.”
This time, Aizawa’s expression morphed into equal parts shock and concern. “A staff member insisted on coming on a student trip off campus?”
“No!” Yaoyorozu didn’t know why she leaped to defend them so quickly. She thought it was weird, too. “He was invited? I think he tried to refuse, and then both Ivanna and Furina coerced him into going. Somehow.”
Aizawa looked like he didn’t buy her story. Yaoyorozu couldn’t blame him. She wouldn’t buy it either if she hadn’t witnessed it.
Eventually, he sighed. “Fine, this could be useful for gathering information. However, the moment you think there might be trouble, make an excuse to leave the table and text me. Immediately. I will come and retrieve you.”
“Okay. Understood.” Right, focus. Information gathering. That’s what this off-campus excursion would be. Information gathering. And she’d managed to get approval without mentioning that the staff member was a nation head!
It wasn’t until Yaoyorozu had returned to her room and tucked into bed that she realized she could have used Aizawa refusing to give permission as a convenient excuse to not leave the campus.
Well, too late for that now. She’d already agreed to go on both sides. It was just for information gathering. Just information.
Nothing else.
——————
The school day, at least, went uneventfully. Yaoyorozu managed to slip away from her classmates by claiming she was going to the library, which was a blatant lie, but she didn’t want to explain what she was actually doing. Midoriya wouldn’t take it well, probably, and she had no idea how the others would react.
She shouldn’t be hiding this much from her classmates. It was bad for trust. And it’s not like anything that weird was going on. Students going out together after school was a normal activity. The only thing that made it weird was that Teyvat Academy seemed so relaxed about it. Yaoyorozu would have expected they would keep the students on campus in order to prevent conflicting viewpoints. Maybe since all of Teyvat was so isolated, they weren’t too worried about it?
When she approached the front, the three students were waiting for her. Ivanna was chattering away. It seemed like she did that a lot.
“Well, if we can’t get it working, you could always use the poivre’s ghost trick,” she said, looking at Furina.
Furina hummed in response. “Yeah, that would work best anyways, I suppose. Ah, but what a shame!”
“What a shame, what a shame, the poor groom’s bride is a—“ Charlotte began, before Furina slapped a hand over her mouth.
“That song isn’t even from Teyvat—“
“Oh look, it’s the lady of the hour!” Ivanna interrupted them both, turning and waving at Yaoyorozu as she spoke. “Hey, over here!”
Yaoyorozu walked up to the group, stopping as the trio all turned to look at her, and Charlotte peeled Furina’s hand away from her face.
“Ahem. I apologize for the undignified display. Monsieur Neuvillette hasn’t arrived yet, so I hope you don’t mind waiting a little while longer.” Furina said.
“No, it’s alright!” Yaoyorozu said. “I assume he’s… busy?”
“Yeah, being a nation head and all.” Ivanna shrugged. “He shouldn’t be long, but sorry for the extra wait.”
“I don’t mind.” Yaoyorozu put a smile on her face. Maybe she could use this to learn more about him without anyone noticing? “I’m just not used to students getting along with teachers so well..”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot you guys don’t know the backstory here,” Ivanna said lightly. “Furina… hey, how do you want me to say it?”
“Huh? Oh, about—“
“Your history, your choice.”
“Right, right! Ahem.” Furina paused, looking hesitant. “Monsieur Neuvillette and I have known each other for a very long time. That weighs out the academy, at least for the two of us. It’s a bit different for Ivanna and Charlotte, but, similar ideas. I’m sure you’ll learn more in history class.”
Furina looked young, but at this point, Yaoyorozu was starting to question the ages of anyone at this school. She brushed past that. “How is it different?”
“I’ve never held reverence for authority a day in my life and I don’t intend to start now,” Ivanna chirped. “Also, Monsieur Neuvillette and I knew each other before the academy. Sitting outside in the rain at three in the morning does far more for a duo than a school ever will.”
“I got him to agree to an interview once!” Charlotte said, and did not elaborate.
Yaoyorozu could only blink. Before she could ask any more questions, she heard Furina speak.
“Yoo-hoo! Monsieur Neuvillette, over here!” She called, and Yaoyorozu turned to see Neuvillette approaching. Seems her time to question these three about him was up.
“Hello, you four. I apologize for keeping you waiting,” Neuvillette said, stopping near the group. Yaoyozoru noted how he seemed to keep a certain distance between himself and the rest of them if he wasn’t invited in. He’d done it before, too, back in the workshop.
“No worries! I know how busy you are,” Ivanna chirped. Then she grabbed Yaoyorozu’s hand and started dragging her off, the rest of the group following behind. Yaoyorozu heard Furina fall back and start talking to Neuvillette, while Charlotte and Ivanna began an animated conversation ahead of her that Yaoyorozu struggled to follow. They were talking fast as lightning, saying something about lenses and screws and cameras. Yaoyorozu wasn’t sure either one of them was taking the time to breathe between sentences. She was sometimes tempted to try and ask, but the two of them jumped through the topic so fast she couldn’t keep up.
The path down to the ground was on some sort of floating stone platform, something Neuvillette warned the entire group to stay away from the edges of. Ivanna rolled her eyes at him when he did and told him he sounded like an old father, but kept towards the center anyways. At the bottom, she immediately grabbed Yaoyorozu’s hand again and started dragging her off, with the other three falling into step behind them. Ivanna lead the group all the way up to some kind of restaurant, where she finally let go of Yaoyorozu’s hand.
“Alright, we’re here! Could you three go find a table?” Ivanna announced, looking back at Neuvillette, Furina, and Charlotte. “I know what everyone’s orders are, so I’ll take Yaoyorozu to get them. Unless you want to switch it up, Furina.”
“No, I’ll stick with my usual,” Furina said, with a shake of her head. “You two, this way!”
Ivanna and Charlotte looked at each other, and then Charlotte spoke.
“Hang on!” she chirped, “I’m gonna go look at something over there!”
Before anyone could respond, she ran off. Yaoyorozu blinked, opening her mouth to ask a question, but before she could, she felt Ivanna grab her hand and start dragging her again.
“Alright, smart cookie! With me!” She pulled Yaoyorozu towards the counter. “Pick what you want, I’m buying.”
Yaoyorozu wanted to ask what that look was about, but she followed Ivanna’s instructions first, watching as Ivanna rattled off a list of other orders and handed over a bunch of coins. Mora, Yaoyorozu recalled. That was Teyvat’s currency.
Only once that was done did Ivanna turn back to Yaoyorozu. “Hang here for a few minutes. I want to give those two a bit more time.”
“Huh?” Yaoyorozu blinked at her. “What are you talking about? What was that look?”
“That was me and Lottie agreeing that she could run off,” Ivanna said breezily. “Normally I’d say she needs to help carry things, but we don’t need three people for that.”
“Okay, but why did she need to run off?”
Ivanna went silent after that, turning her head to face the table that Neuvillette and Furina had claimed. Yaoyorozu wanted to keep questioning her, because maybe this could be a key to finding something new, but seeing Ivanna go silent was more unsettling than she wanted to admit. She’d only just met Ivanna, but it seemed like she never stopped talking. And yet, now she was quiet, like she was hesitating.
“I’m giving those two some space,” Ivanna finally said, though her head didn’t move. “Monsieur Neuvillette and Furina, I mean. Whenever I drag the group out, Lottie and I always make an excuse to give those two a bit of time alone. Away from the school, and from either of us listening in.”
Yaoyorozu studied them closer. She was too far away to hear anything they said, but Furina seemed to be smiling. There was something different about it, something she couldn’t place. Neuvillette’s face was impassive as she’d always seen.
“Why?”
“It’s a long story,” Ivanna said. “I’m not going to tell it all today, for a lot of reasons. And before I tell you anything, I need to warn you of this: Don’t let anything I say impact how you talk to Furina from now on.”
Yaoyorozu’s head snapped to Ivanna, a million more questions on the tip of her tongue, but Ivanna still wasn’t looking at her. She kept talking.
“I’m sure Furina will tell if you pry hard enough, and you’ll learn in history class anyways, but I’m not going to be the one to spill a friend’s whole history. And I want you to meet Furina as who she is now, and not who she pretended to be.”
Yaoyorozu felt something weird in her chest, like the air had suddenly gotten heavier. Anything she could have said caught in her throat.
“Monsieur Neuvillette and Furina used to be very close. Like, were basically never apart close. They have a lot of history together, more years than either of us were alive. But after a… let’s call it a series of events, yeah? After a whole series of events, they ended up being pretty distant, and not really being able to talk. And it’s not like the academy makes it easier. So! That’s where this comes in. This gives them a few minutes to catch up as the people they are, not the roles they had to play. Make sense?”
Yaoyorozu swallowed. “Not really.”
“Yeah, I figured. It’ll make sense once you hit Fontaine in history class.” Ivanna shrugged.
“But you won’t explain it to me?” Yaoyorozu couldn’t help but think that was strange. Most of the Teyvat students explained surface things like that history with little prompting. Yaoyorozu assumed it was how they were taught, to give the whole false history so the place seemed more legitimate. And yet, here Ivanna was, telling her to wait.
“Nope,” Ivanna said, popping the P. “Told you. I want you to meet Furina as the person she is. Not the person she had to be.” She paused. “Same with Neuvillette, honestly, but it’s more dramatic with Furina. Oh, hey, there’s the milkshakes!”
Before Yaoyorozu could say anything else, Ivanna made a beeline for the counter and made her help carry the drinks, and didn’t want to ask questions in front of a nation head. Charlotte showed up right as Ivanna and Yaoyorozu approached, as if she had been waiting for that timing exactly.
Well. If Ivanna was telling the truth, that’s exactly what she was doing.
Ivanna dropped everyone’s milkshakes in front of them, seemingly back to her cheery demeanor. Yaoyorozu could have gotten whiplash from how suddenly he returned.
“And here’s your water, Monsieur Neuvillette!” She announced, passing around the last glass. She could have sworn this was about milkshakes. Everyone else had one.
“Thank you, Miss Ivanna,” Neuvillette said politely, even as Yaoyorozu was left reeling. Why was that what tripped her up the most, after everything? A cup of water? Really?
“How can I forget that you get the same thing every time?” Ivanna said with a grin, before glancing at Yaoyorozu. “This guy hates anything that isn’t water. Someone once tried to give him a bottle of Fonta and I’ve never seen him make such a disgusted face.”
“It happened more than once,” Furina chimed in. “He always has to control his expression.”
“I do believe I asked you not to share that with the people,” Neuvillette said. His voice sounded stern, and Yaoyorozu nearly flinched at the tone. The other three, however, didn’t even blink. Weren’t they concerned by that tone? Like they were in trouble?
“You said with the people of Fontaine. Yaoyorozu’s not from Fontaine,” Ivanna retorted. She was grinning, smiling like she had no worries at all. “What’s she going to do?”
“I suppose you aren’t wrong,” Neuvillette sighed, and Yaoyorozu felt the tension drain from her body as he did. She took a long drink from her cup to hide any expression she could make.
The conversation turned to idle chatter, something Yaoyorozu could actually understand. It didn’t really seem like she would get any more information out of it, but despite everything, it was kind of fun. Including the part where Ivanna obtained a second straw, looked Furina dead in the eyes, and said, “Watch how fast I can drink this,” only to promptly give herself brain freeze. She brushed it off, and both Charlotte and Furina seemed entirely unsympathetic. Neuvillette seemed more concerned, but relaxed when Ivanna started laughing it off. He was the first one to dismiss himself, claiming he had to make his return, but trusted that the three of them could make it back safely on their own. The group waved him off, and returned to chatting for a while, before they agreed it was time to go as well.
“Alright, smart cookie, with me!” Ivanna announced. “Your teacher will have my head if you get lost.”
“Your teacher will have all of our heads if you get lost,” Charlotte added.
“And then it’ll be a whole scandal, so let’s not have that, shall we?” Furina finished. Yaoyorozu went without protest, mystified by their sudden unity. They took the floating platform back up, and Charlotte ran off as soon as they arrived back at the campus, saying something about an interview.
“Hey, Furina, wanna head back together?” Ivanna offered.
“Of course! Though, something tells me there’s more you want to say to our companion from afar, yes?” Furina responded, shooting a glance at Yaoyorozu.
“You know me so well. Hang on. Hey, smart cookie. You know the way back to your dorm from here, or do you need an escort?”
Yaoyozoru winced. Yeah, no, she’d lied to her classmates about going to the library, she was not letting those two take her back. She could find her own way.
“No, I’ll be fine on my own.”
“Alright, got it!” Ivanna confirmed, rocking around in her bag. “One sec, I have something for you— oh, that jerk. I’m gonna dump a bucket of water on Lyney for teaching him sleight of hand.”
Furina looked over. “Monsieur Neuvillette slipped you the money for the milkshakes, didn’t he?”
“As stated, I’m going to dump a bucket of water on Lyney for showing him how to do that,” Ivanna said. Yaoyorozu couldn’t help but be alarmed, but yet again, Ivanna switched topics too quickly for her to ask. “Anyways, as I was saying, here’s something for you! Consider it a gift from yours truly. I think you’re cool enough for it.”
Yaoyorozu looked at the thing that had been pushed into her hands. A small duck contraption, made of metal, with what looked like a key in its back. A wind-up toy, like one you’d give to kids.
“A wind-up duck?” Yaoyorozu asked, looking down at it, then back at Ivanna, who grinned.
“Consider it my signature. If you find any more around, feel free to keep em. I leave them like a scavenger hunt.“
“I have a whole collection of them,” Furina added. “She made miniature versions of my salon members as wind-up critters.”
“Thank you,” Yaoyorozu said, studying the contraption in her hand. Ivanna laughed.
“Of course! See you around, smart cookie.”
And with that, she and Furina set off, back towards their own dorm, and Yaoyorozu set towards the transfer dorm. She’d figure out how to explain the duck to her classmates later.