five days at war | genshin impact | gorou & kazuha

bravery or foolishness

It is not long before Kazuha is something of a right-hand man to Gorou. He does not take interest in strategy nor training the troops, and more often than not Gorou finds him sitting on an outcropping of rock or in the fork of a tree, eyes closed as if blocking out the world. Regardless, his company is indispensable to the young general. When Gorou finds himself overwhelmed—usually at the prospect of defeating the shogunate forces with a group featuring many men who have never picked up a weapon before joining the resistance—he can trek to the highest hill in the area or the quietest beach and find the young samurai.

On one such occasion, no sooner does Gorou plop down ungracefully next to the elegant Kazuha than the man takes a deep breath and says, "The Shogun's Army is approaching."

Gorou's posture stiffens, and he instinctively looks around. Kazuha gives him a soft smile as he glances at him from the corner of his eye.

"Worry not," he reassures the bristling general. He takes another sniff of the air and continues, "They are far, and you have more than enough time to prepare the troops."

Gorou breathes, though he relaxes only slightly. "Ah, how do you do that?" he asks with a breathy laugh. "Surely my nose should be better than yours..."

"It is no miracle—your watchmen will no doubt be sounding the alarm any minute now," Kazuha replies, and he stands, offering a hand to Gorou.

Gorou accepts it, and the two begin their march back to camp. They part ways just before the gates—Gorou will have to command his troops, and Kazuha will have to take his place among them—but just as they do, Kazuha whispers, "I may be attuned to the scents of nature, but your ears are still better than mine."

Gorou laughs. It is a strange feeling: laughing before a fight, but when one's life is merely a string of battles, there are very few moments that could be considered not before a fight.

The battle is much like every other; forces clash, soldiers fall, and to top it off, rain pours. Gorou finds himself at Kazuha's back, and the two move in sync without communication, like a practiced dance. Perhaps one could indeed call it practiced, given their tendency to end up like this in every battle they fight. The whistle of Kazuha's sword through the air reminds Gorou of the whistles the samurai enjoys making when he finds a stray leaf. Sometimes, when things are peaceful, Gorou will approach him, wordlessly hand him a leaf, and depart once more, though he hasn't done it quite as often since the time Kazuha likened it to the behavior of a hunting dog presenting his owner with a proud catch.

He hears a grunt behind him, but before he can check whether the injured party is Kazuha or his opponent, Gorou hears the booming voice of Kujou Sara. Her words begin as a growl in the back of her throat, unmistakably frustration as she orders her troops to retreat.

But there is little time for victory. The front lines have been pushed back, and if they don't move their camp soon, the next battle could destroy their supplies. With this, the wounded, and—unfortunately—the dead, taking a moment to celebrate seems somewhere between foolish and sinful.

At the thought of the wounded, Gorou turns to check on Kazuha, and he is taken aback by the large patch of blood spread across his sleeve. Kazuha shakes his head.

"The rain has worsened the appearance," he says, droplets of said water flinging off his soaked hair. "This is far from the worst injury."

At the time, Gorou thinks nothing of this phrasing, merely nodding and working to move his troops back to camp. But later, as he sits in a tent with Kazuha, patching up the arm that still has not stopped bleeding, he thinks back to those words.

"What did you mean?" he asks, tying off the bandages. The wound was not particularly deep, seemingly having been a graze from an arrow, but the blood still ran stubborn. "When you spoke about the worst injury, I mean."

His hand lingers on Kazuha's arm, and Kazuha places his own hand over top. "Others have incurred far worse injuries in the name of resistance. You worry too much about me."

Gorou moves to retract his hand, but Kazuha's hand weighs heavy on top, as though he has no intention of pushing Gorou away. Of course, Gorou has no good reason to think that he would; Kazuha is always kind and willing to engage with others, and Gorou has never seen him intentionally push anyone away, for that matter. But he is quiet, and many soldiers find him strange, what with the way he spends so much time focusing on nature. Occasionally, when the weather is particularly nice, Gorou will watch a conversation fizzle out and dissipate all because Kazuha is too caught up in the breeze to remember he needs to reply.

Though endearing, Gorou wonders if Kazuha utilizes this reputation for his own benefit from time to time. It would be particularly easy to avoid the topics he doesn't want to talk about.

And so, out of curiosity for his theory (and because it is not an unreasonable leap in conversation), Gorou asks, "Are you thinking of the one whose vision you kept?"

Kazuha's expression grows distant, and Gorou senses the telltale deep breath he uses to scent the air. Several seconds pass, and just when Gorou is about to consider his theory confirmed, Kazuha says, "Yes and no."

Gorou tilts his head, giving a tiny scoff. "Care to elaborate?"

Kazuha removes his hand from Gorou's, instead using it to retrieve the empty vision from within the folds of his clothing. As Gorou pulls his own hand away and cradles it in his lap, Kazuha says, "He was my closest friend. Perhaps the closest I've been with... anyone."

Gorou stifles a gasp. Of course, everyone knows of Kazuha's involvement in the duel's aftermath, but no one had managed to figure out just what he was doing there in the first place.

"But we had different lives—different goals and desires—and when the Decree began, we went into hiding separately. The next time I saw him was when she struck him down."

"I'm sorry. I wasn't aware—"

"Why would you be?" Kazuha asks, glancing at him from the corner of his eye. With a hint of a smile, he adds, "I haven't spoken about it with anyone before now."

Gorou can't find the words that usually come so easily to him, and in lieu of a reply, he merely sighs.

"You no doubt wonder why I took the vision," Kazuha says, turning the object over in his fingers. "After all, it has made me into perhaps the most wanted man in the nation."

Gorou shakes his head. "Because he was your friend," he says. "Anyone would..."

"This is not the first time I have grieved a loved one, nor do I suspect it will be the last," Kazuha murmurs. "I suppose, if I am to be truthful, I wanted answers as much as I wanted to preserve a piece of him."

It is strange to hear, given that Gorou has become so accustomed to Kazuha having all the answers he could possibly need. Whenever he doubts himself and asks if he is truly good enough to lead the resistance, Kazuha speaks in quiet poetry, quoting old proverbs or plucking words from the air to soothe his worries.

"What sort of answers?"

Kazuha props an elbow on his leg, resting his chin on his palm. His eyes are distant as he gazes at the grass, but where his usual demeanor is filled with serenity, he is now shrouded in troubles. "As to why he would go... was it bravery or foolishness? He was no fool, but neither am I, and yet I reached for his vision."

Gorou frowns, eyes on the empty vision as it hangs from Kazuha's relaxed fingers. "Maybe..." he says, inching his own hand closer, fingers curling around the cold metal and Kazuha's warm skin. "All bravery requires a little bit of foolishness."