Chapter Text
When Isagi opened his eyes, the very first sensation he felt was the throbbing of his head and the brightness of the sun glaring at him from above.
The ground below him didn't feel solid, no, it was coarse.. and gritty… was he on sand?
Isagi jolted up, suddenly remembering— whatever the fuck had happened a moment ago!
He and his friends had been catching up after the great separation arc in the name of The World Cup training, and Bachira had been on an endless rambling streak when a light brighter than the stupid sun above him rendered every one of them blind.
He recalled feeling a sharp, quick strike of pain in the same area his head was throbbing now. It had disturbingly felt as though his skull was splitting, like a needle going right through the scalp.. except the needle was a few too many sizes larger than your average one.
Fortunately, that excruciating ache had lasted only a flicker. Unfortunately, because whichever higher being up there had an avid, passionate hobby of turning the smile on Isagi's face upside down, he was stranded on an island, jacket dusted in sand and … and …
That was when Isagi noticed, to his absolute horror, there was another person passed out next to him. And oh, he could only wish it would have been someone from Blue Lock— Bachira, or Chigiri, maybe even the always agitated and angry Rin— but the gods decided that the only good thing about Isagi's day today would be the hundred yen he found on the ground earlier that morning. That was it, his luck had ended there.
Alas, it was tragically his greatest rival and fucking clown, Michael Kaiser ㅤ♡ㅤ
The blonde's fingers twitched; The infamous joker was about to wake up and experience the same glare of the sun too. But for some reason, the sound of the sea gradually got louder, the gentle waves clamoured against the jagged rocks at the shore, and the sun immediately grew even brighter ( good, let his eyes suffer more, damn!)
Kaiser shifted, bringing his arm over to cover his eyes before he even willed them slightly open— damn cheater. And from Isagi's view, the man looked almost ethereal albeit literally being thrown out on this low quality sand. The harshly glowing sun which was supposed to inconvenience Kaiser a tad bit harder than it had done to him, was hitting the idiot's face in the perfect angle instead! The clown looked like some angel whose serene slumber was being rudely disrupted.
How dramatic and unfair…so the higher beings favoured the German, not Isagi. A piece of life changing information, really.
Kaiser rubbed his eyes, his movements sluggish. He pushed himself up using his elbows, but instead of the soft silk of his bed he had been expecting, his arm sunk into grains.
The blonde blinked once, twice, aware that his bedroom did not have a view of the sea, and that his bed had never been this roughly textured.
Isagi had been observing, and rolled his eyes. "Had a good nap princess?"
The question woke Kaiser up completely— not because of the question itself, but because he could recognise that voice anywhere..
"Yoichi?" He snapped his head to the direction in which the voice had come, and glared sharp daggers at the Japanese.
"What're you doing in my ro— no.." Kaiser clicked his tongue, sitting up in one hurried motion as he processed his surroundings. This was not his room, fucking confirmed.
He had so many questions. Training had been grueling and Kaiser had simply went to sleep for a moment's rest, but now he woke up on an island with shitty Yoichi of all people. Where was Ness? He'd rather be with Ness, man, the gods hated him.
As he opened his mouth to bombard Isagi with a hundred questions and accusations, the guy intercepted before Kaiser could even form a word—
"No I don't know where we are and I didn't do shit."
Kaiser shut his mouth, a sharp puff escaped his nose. "So… what do we do now?"
"I wish I knew, Kaiser. I wish I knew" Isagi replied, getting up on his feet to dust himself off. "Well we better get out of here and find a way to go back."
Kaiser thought for a second, looking around once again. There was a pathway leading further into the region, away from the sea and probably into even more distant land.
He nodded, reluctantly agreeing with his nemesis for once. "Staying near the water isn't going to be safe anyway."
Isagi's eyebrow shot up, a bit intrigued. He didn't know why, but Kaiser had always struck him as a dumb blonde who was only skilled and precise at football. The German didn't have the appearance of a knowledgeable person outside of sport.
"Wow. You're actually kind of smart"
Kaiser offered a sidelong glance, feeling quite offended. "It's common sense, shitty Yoichi." A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips, "unless you're so stupid that you think this is rocket science?"
A vein comically popped on Isagi's temple, his blood pressure spiking. The higher beings and Kaiser were both testing him today. How was he going to spend the next few hours with this spawn of evil? If the gods had maybe a little grace left, they would answer him. Or even better, help him get away.
Isagi turned, ready to pin Kaiser with a glare of his own, only to find the blonde's focus stolen by something in the distance straight ahead.
"Huh?" It caught Isagi off guard. Kaiser's expression looked off, different. There was a tiny gleam in his eyes. What could warrant a look like that from this guy?
Curiously, Isagi whipped his head to whatever Kaiser was staring at. It was…. A dog?
"Yoichi" Kaiser said, his voice expectant but with a hint of skepticism. "Is that.. a dog?"
Kaiser sounded unreasonably eager.
"so.." Isagi began, looking between the 'dog' and Kaiser's face that seemed to have softened with affection. "..you're into dogs? Interesting."
He worded that wrong. What made him say that? Isagi would contemplate about this moment all day now.
Kaiser feigned a small gasp, his eyes were narrowed into slits filled with pure judgment towards Isagi. "No, I'm not into dogs. What I'm into is people who think before speaking."
For the first time in probably a thousand millennia, Isagi took a deep breath and mumbled a half- assed apology.
Kaiser rolled his eyes so hard they could almost view the brain at the back of his head. "Go home and do some reflecting on what you said."
"I will" Isagi said adamantly, "if we even find a way back!"
He shifted his attention back to the unusual creature they'd been eyeing before.
Isagi understood why Kaiser was unsure too. Because, why, would a dog be pink, white and blue? Those were the most absurd combination of colours he'd ever seen on fur. It couldn't be real.
As they got closer, they realised this thing wasn't a dog, it was even floating.
Kaiser's eye twitched. Mislead he was, he voiced out his utter disappointment "what? It's not even a dog"
The 'dog' squeaked, and spun around rapidly.
Isagi's jaw fell open, and Kaiser's eyes widened, brows furrowed. What the fuck?
A little girl, this little lady was floating with some weird detached halo over her head
Isagi gulped. "Am I seeing ghosts?"
Kaiser scoffed, seriously disturbed. "If you are then you passed it on to me too"
The girl looked confused one second then outraged the next— though she just looked like an angry little tomato.
"What?! Paimon is not a ghost! And who said anything about dogs?!"
Wow, this feminine thing talked! Surprise, first they got teleported to an island, they got stranded together, and now a flying child was yelling at them.
Isagi quickly pointed at the taller man next to him "He thought you were a dog"
Kaiser swatted his finger away, scowling for half a second before meeting Paimon's eyes. "How are you in the air? Are you a kite?"
Paimon literally deflated, as if the sentence that vibrated through her ears just trampled over her entire existence.
Isagi covered his mouth, genuinely concerned. "I take back my comment about you being smart, Kaiser. What kind of question is that?"
Kaiser couldn't tell what Isagi was saying, the latter was mumbling behind his hand. He decided to ignore it, more interested in the eccentric little kite here. A talking kite, according to him.
"Me and shitty Yoichi here woke up in this place randomly and now we're completely lost. And you're flying."
The girl, Paimon, gave his words a little thought and snapped her fingers "aha! I know!"
Isagi lit up, expecting a great revelation on how to fix this bullshit pronto
"I actually don't know." She said. She was included in the list of people testing Isagi now. The number just kept increasing!
"But!" Paimon floated to the side, pointing at someone a few metres away cooking food using… the campfire? Had they been camping?
"He probably can help you. Trust me, we've been through lots of things. Paimon doesn't remember the last time something NORMAL happened, haha!"
Kaiser and Isagi shared a look. That didn't sound like good news.
Paimon lead, or well forcefully got the duo to follow her. They approached the young man making food— the multiple dishes on the side looked delectable, their smell very inviting. It didn't help that neither Isagi nor Kaiser had eaten much yet.
The guy, who had long blonde hair tied into a braid, glanced up feeling his companion's presence, expecting to see her usual excitement over food; he saw two extra individuals instead.
The man eyed Kaiser and Isagi up and down, assessing their attire and expressions (it was obvious they weren't too comfortable here.)
Kaiser held his breath as he felt the other's eyes raking over him, then spoke, "Are you gonna say something?"
The man put down his wooden spatula on a clean cloth, standing up from his makeshift chair. He wasn't that tall, he was exactly at Isagi's average height.
"Sorry. My name's Aether, but you can call me traveler"
"And Paimon's Paimon!" The floating creature joined in, putting emphasis on the Paimon "I'm NOT a kite, yellow blue boy!"
She meant Kaiser? She did. Kaiser shot a glare at the girl then 'Aether.' "I'll be calling you Aether, Kay? 'Traveler' is like saying ' my name is Kaiser but you can call me footballer' "
Isagi actually chuckled at that. He nodded in agreement. "My name is Isagi. Isagi Yoichi."
"Isagi?" Aether and Paimon both parroted at the same time, the two glancing at eachother with something like recognition and confusion in their eyes before they focused back on them.
Isagi rubbed his neck nervously, aware of the sudden attention all too well. "Uh… yeah. What?"
Aether placed his chin in his hands, a detective-like look on his face. "I knew I recognised your face. Though.. you look a little different."
Kaiser hummed, nudging the shorter. "Maybe he saw you on the TV?"
Isagi considered that might be a reason. Aether was probably talking about his career and online personality being dissimilar to his 'real' style.
Paimon didn't understand at first, but then realisation seemed to have slowly but surely settled in her head.
"Oh! And traveler look!" She quickly pointed at Kaiser, instinctively sliding away to hide behind Aether's back. "Kaiser?"
Kaiser gave an unimpressed look at Paimon hiding. "Yea, that's what I said my name was."
Aether tilted his head in contemplation, "..Why're you back in Mondstadt?" He asked Kaiser specifically. Aether then fixed Isagi with a puzzled look. "And I thought you'd be heading to Snezhnaya by now? What's happening?"
Isagi's brow furrowed in confusion. What was he saying? He didn't need to check beside him to know Kaiser was also perplexed.
"What's Monsad? Snezhnaya? I.. we don't know what you're saying..Aether"
Paimon, who was shielded behind the young man, peeked up for a second. "Oh, yeah. Paimon forgot to tell you traveler— they said they randomly appeared here and they don't know why.."
Aether pursed his lips in more confusion now. None of them understood each other.
Kaiser waited a few seconds before deciding this conversation had to continue one way or another for any luck
"I was sleeping in my bed after training. Then I opened my eyes and saw the fucking sea over there" he gestured to the shore they had just come from. "If you required context."
Isagi joined in "and I was talking with my friends when a really bright light blinded me.. it hurt like a bitch.. and then I also just spawned here— with this guy…" the last sentence had a tinge of disappointment in it. Whether it was real or a small jab at Kaiser was unknown.
"Light? Huh." Aether once again did a quick eye-scan of the two. They didn't wear clothes that were befitting of a Teyvat person, Kaiser wasn't in the usual attire he would be seen in; Isagi was too chill. They must've been from another planet or something.
"I think I know now" Aether said confidently. Paimon slowly floated forward again, but remained close to the traveler.
"You two are from another planet, and you landed here in Teyvat"
…
Kaiser couldn't believe what he was hearing. Another planet? So this place wasn't even their dear homeland Earth? He swallowed, not being able to digest the detail told to them..
Isagi on the other hand, "Teyvat?"
He was both hesitant and excited. Different universes and planets always sounded fun and bizarre; he believed Aether even more because Paimon herself was a flying talking animal. It wasn't everyday you'd see something like that… but either way, the concept was still pretty hard to believe.
He looked around, trying to grasp an idea of where this 'Teyvat, Mondstadt' might be. The architecture of the land was unfamiliar to Isagi, used to only what he saw every day in his homeland and the modern structures of Munich.
Kaiser didn't have a clue either. This place was comparatively less advanced, though with much beautiful edifices than the country he was from. The breeze was light and calm without a sign of any automobiles like there were on the loud, busy streets of the cities.
Aether turned to quickly blow out the fire he had been using for cooking, "Teyvat is a world among many. I don't know how you reached here, and how this is possible, but it's the only possible explanation."
Isagi remained quiet, debating whether to take this seriously or not. He probably should.. it wasn't like there were any other choices. "So it's like isekai?"
Aether frowned, puzzled. He had no idea what that meant.
Paimon felt the same, giving the dark haired boy a quizzical look "Isekai? Is that some inazuman word?"
"Inazuma? What's that?"
Aether shook his head, putting aside the steaming pot of hot, delicious food. The aroma of the dish was rich and woodsy, seamlessly drifting in the air.
"You wouldn't know. It's fine, I'll help you out" he said. So, the Paimon girl was right, this guy did seem to know what to do.
Meanwhile Kaiser was nonetheless wary of everything. The whole predicament he and Isagi had found themselves in was like a fantasy; It probably was, to be frank.
Paimon clasped her hands together, a cheery smile dawning on her face. She seemed to be less scared now, unlike the cowering mess she had been behind Aether a minute ago. "You two learned the language of Teyvat so quick! Didn't you just fall here?"
"The language of what?" Kaiser and Isagi both responded in unison,
"The universal language of this world! That's how we are talking now. Paimon and traveler speak the language"
Isagi was debating internally with himself whether this was all just an extensive prank, about to ask Kaiser the question when he realised..
"Wait." He faced Kaiser, checking his ears. There was nothing. Isagi's hand shot up to his own ear, finding that there was no device there too.. they weren't wearing their translators!
Isagi didn't know German to a degree where he could have had all those conversations with Kaiser so easily all along.
"Kaiser" Isagi hissed, his voice an urgent whisper
Kaiser had been busy studying the landscape of the region and the high stone walls bustling with people in the distance. Shitty Yoichi's call broke his train of thought,
"What?"
"We're not wearing our translators. We've been talking without them the entire time!"
Now that got Kaiser completely off guard. He threw Isagi a baffled look, the realisation that his ears really hadn't been hurting the entire time— because usually, those earphones fucking overwhelmed him. This whole while though, he didn't feel that discomfort. No wonder why.
"Then…" Kaiser mumbled, more unsettled than confused. "This really is.. some other world."
"I told you" Aether spoke, nevermind the fact that HE was a bit lost too now "you'll get used to it soon"
"Soon?" Isagi repeated, a little horrified. How long would they be stuck here?
Paimon and Aether shared a look. This was going to be a truly weird journey.