Inside Tenshukaku.
The Raiden Shogun sat upright before her desk, eyes closed in quiet contemplation and meditation.
Within the tranquil Plane of Euthymia.
Ei floated, seated in midair, quietly reading a book.
The title was Sword and Fairy 1.
This was a book that Yae Miko had gone out of her way to bring her some days ago, telling her that they were all fine books well worth a read.
The Traveler had read them and highly recommended them.
She had already read into the latter part of the story.
The passage she was on told of how Jing Tian and his companions arrived in the Divine Realm, met Xi Yao, and how Xi Yao silently shed her tears.
As she read of Xi Yao recalling the little fragments of bygone days, Ei lapsed into silence.
And just then, she noticed a set of verses printed along the side of the page.
"In silence, I walked—how far have I come? I lift my head, and all at once realize that I have been retreating all along, retreating back to the very start, stubbornly persisting in my struggle against time..."
"The forever we promised has snapped its thread; all that we hoped would stay unchanged has already changed. Only with eyes shut tight can I see those scenes that were once warm, once vivid and bright..."
Seeing these verses, Ei's pupils contracted slightly. She closed her eyes, and a flood of long-sealed memories came surging out.
Her expression darkened in an instant.
At the same time, the once-bright Plane of Euthymia dimmed considerably.
Those scenes that were once warm and vivid and bright—they were of the days when they admired the cherry blossoms together beneath the sakura tree.
Laughing together, discussing together the amusing little things that had happened in recent days. Back then, Kitsune Saiguu loved to wander among mortals, and would always recount the interesting things she had seen in the mortal world.
She would always listen quietly off to one side, while Chiyo would rest her head upon her knees, catching falling sakura petals in her hands.
And Sasayuri, like her, would sit beside them, drinking sake, listening to all that Kitsune Saiguu had seen and heard.
Beneath the sakura tree, they had wished for a friendship that would last forever, unchanging.
Only... now, it had all long since changed...
She was already utterly alone...
Come tomorrow, their smiling faces would be there no more...
Even Makoto—she had lost her too...
The beautiful memories shattered like flowers in a mirror, like the moon upon the water.
She gripped the book tightly, her fingers pressing several deep prints into its thick cover.
Had she not held herself in check, this book would long ago have crumbled to ash.
Stillness.
Quiet.
Within the Plane of Euthymia, there was no wind, no sound.
Ei stayed silent for a very, very long while, until she sensed that the Sacred Sakura was under attack, and only then came back to herself.
"It's the Rifthounds..."
Ei's pupils contracted slightly.
Five hundred years ago, in that calamity, it was precisely this pack of Rifthounds that, serving as the vanguard, had invaded Inazuma...
And it was that very calamity that had taken from her everyone she treasured.
Beneath the sakura tree, only she remained...
Her expression turned cold.
She set down the book. Her vision blurred for an instant, and the view shifted from the Plane of Euthymia to within Tenshukaku.
The great hall of Tenshukaku was, as ever, empty of any soul.
Only, as she rose to her feet, her body at once sent forth a resistance.
After forcibly suppressing the discomfort in her body, Ei lifted her foot and stepped forward, and her figure instantly appeared in the sky above Tenshukaku.
She stood suspended in the air above Tenshukaku, her gaze piercing through the layered mists to come to rest at the foot of Mt. Yougou.
A faintly chill wind, carrying the morning haze, brushed against her, and in her purple eyes there was sorrow.
The next moment, she took a single step out.
At once she became a soundless bolt of thunder, and at a truly terrifying speed, almost in an instant, she arrived at the foot of Mt. Yougou.
Beneath the rampage of the hauntingly beautiful lightning, several wildly howling Rifthounds were instantly reduced to ash.
The thunder annihilated everything.
Only, after she had wiped out the Rifthounds, the sorrowful, conflicted look in her eyes grew all the more profound.
At the same time, the resistance within her body grew ever more severe.
She forcibly suppressed her body's resistance, and as she headed to the next location, she discovered that the Traveler and Paimon were fighting against Rifthounds.
Without the slightest hesitation, she stamped her foot and turned into thunder, sweeping to a stop before them as Musou Isshin slid from its sheath.
The blade, wreathed in thunder, annihilated two Rifthounds as easily as snapping withered twigs.
Meanwhile in Liyue, the Wanwen Bookhouse was bustling beyond all measure.
Six or seven employees could not keep up with the demand, and even the boss-lady, Jifang, could only suppress her urge to take a look at just what sort of ghost novel Fang Qiu had written and instead set to ceaselessly helping the clerks hand out books.
The tavern downstairs was quickly filled with patrons, and the sight of it had the boss-lady beaming with joy.
Truly worthy of Fang Qiu.
Hu Tao, for her part, had bought her books bright and early. Just as she was grinning at the cart piled full of books, intending to push the little handcart back to the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, she suddenly caught sight of a familiar figure.
It was Ganyu.
She was standing outside the line, gazing at the long dragon of a queue, at her wits' end.
Hm?
What was she doing here?
And so, Hu Tao pushed her little handcart over and stepped up before her.
After chatting a while and learning that Ganyu had snatched a moment from her busy schedule, intending to come buy a copy of Fang Qiu's new book, Hu Tao took out three copies of The Forest of Fireflies' Light and handed them to Ganyu.
As some novel enthusiasts put it: one to collect, one to recommend, and one for personal use.
Ganyu insisted on not taking them for free, so she paid Hu Tao for the books, and after thus owing Hu Tao a favor, she bid Hu Tao farewell.
Having parted with Ganyu, Hu Tao made her way all the way back to the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, where a tall, upright young man with handsome, refined features stood beneath the osmanthus tree in front of the parlor.
"Zhongli, what are you looking at?"
Hu Tao, pulling along her little handcart, asked after greeting Zhongli.
"I'm not looking at anything."
Zhongli shook his head, then turned his gaze to the fully laden little handcart behind Hu Tao, his expression placid, and said, "It's only that a good book is worth spending the time to wait for, and so I've been waiting here, that's all."
"All right, all right—I thought there was some big bit of business that needed me to make a call on it. Here, take one."
Though Hu Tao let out a sigh, the corners of her mouth lifted irrepressibly. She turned and took a book from the little handcart and handed it to Zhongli.
"Many thanks, Director Hu."
Zhongli took the book and glanced at the cover.
Beneath a torii gate sealed with a great many talismans, a boy led a girl by the hand with a wooden stick, the two of them walking along a mountain path.
He casually flipped through a couple of pages—this time Director Hu hadn't played any tricks.
Seeing that there was nothing wrong with the contents.
He exchanged a few words with Hu Tao, then turned and left.
As for Hu Tao, she handed the little handcart over to the young undertaker girl, asking her to help with the deliveries.
"Fang Qiu's so obviously terrified of ghosts—so why on earth write ghost stories?"
Muttering to herself, book in hand, Hu Tao sat down on the railing, stretched lazily, and opened the cover.
She very much enjoyed reading ghost novels.
She wanted to see just what Fang Qiu's ghost novel was like.
Only, when she saw that line of exquisite small print on the title page, she couldn't help but be stunned.
"Form no bonds, lest you merely add to your sorrow."
Hu Tao murmured the line aloud, somewhat distracted.
It was not until a gust of wind blew past, carrying a chill, that the young undertaker girl hugged herself and said, "It's been so cold lately. Winter's only just arrived, and already I'm half wishing summer would hurry up and come..."
"Has it gotten cold?"
Hu Tao's expression was complicated. She lifted her head to look at the osmanthus tree, from which a fair number of leaves had fallen, and said, "I wonder if Fang Qiu's woken up yet—whether she's tucked herself in properly while sleeping, whether she might catch a chill."
Thinking of this, she looked at that line in the book, "Form no bonds, lest you merely add to your sorrow."
Her heart felt unusually weighed down.
She pressed down the restlessness in her heart and turned to the title page.
The story began on a high summer's day, with the cicadas singing.
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