Rewind | Genshin Impact

Chapter 17

5th May 2020

"Guilty." The judge declared, silence then gasps followed that statement. 

"This is ridiculous! You truly think that I would do that to my, my brother?" Diluc argued from the front of the room, despite trying to sound mad there was evident fear and panic heard in his voice.

"All evidence points to you." The judge declared sternly, before turning his attention to the guards. "Take him away."

Diluc's protests faded as he was dragged further and further out of the room. Venti turned to look at everyone else who was at the dinner party and was surprised to see that there was a look of indifference on most of their faces. 

Following this, they were all sent out of the courtroom. Since the night with Lumine, Venti and Xiao didn't really talk. It wasn't that Venti didn't want to talk to the other boy, he just didn't seem to have much of an option. The morning after their outing Xiao called him, and informed him that he was going to do some digging around for information that he'll fill Venti in on later. He just requested that for now, the bard stayed out of it, which Venti agreed on after some hesitation.

So he spent most of his nights at bars or playing video games. Luckily, he got an extension in regard to his university assignments but it didn't seem to matter much if he was going to be sent back in time anyway.

if he was actually going to be sent back...

Venti spent some time wondering what the actual rules of this were. Was it a one time thing or would it continue until he stopped Kaeya's murder? Until the guilty person was charged? Would it ever end? or is this time loop completely separated from Kaeya's murder all together, and it was just an awful coincidence? 

"Hey, Venti." Venti quickly turned around to see Xiao coming towards him. Without saying a word, Xiao grabbed his wrist and dragged him out onto the streets, walking a bit until he entered a nearby alleyway, pulling Venti in with him.

"Xiao..." Venti mumbled, blinking a few times to completely snap out of his thoughts. 

"When do you go back?"

"Huh?"

"In your last time loop, when were you sent back in time again?" Xiao pushed on.

"Oh... Pretty soon after Xingqiu was said to be guilty, so I guess in this case pretty soon after Diluc was said to be guilty."

"Well then, we're going to have to make this quick." Xiao sighed, checking that there was no one near them before continuing. "In the next time loop, you'll need to investigate Scaramouche." 

This shocked Venti. Not the fact that he needed to investigate Scaramouche because since the beginning Venti suspected him, but the fact that after so long Xiao thought that it would be a good idea as well. "You have a change of heart?"

Xiao rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Just do it, okay? At this point I'm not certain of anything."

Then a thought occurred to Venti, "and how am I going to convince next-loop you to investigate Scaramouche with me? Since this you and previous you didn't waste anytime in shutting the idea down."

Xiao looked like he was deep in thought, as if choosing his next words carefully. "Tell me that you know about the gem, and there was another way." He said slowly.

"What? What do you mean?" Venti questioned.

Before Xiao could answer, everything started fading black around him and the other boys voice was replaced with the annoying clicking of the clock, before everything went black.

Tick Tock Tick Tock