Little Flower |Scaramouche| ✓

◤XXXIV |Raijin Narukami|

"Maram," Scaramouche caught the attention of the ghost god. "Explain yourself right now. Where the actual hell is Raijin and what did you mean when you said 'she's somewhere safe' even though she's not anywhere to be found?"

"I told you I'd explain, didn't I?" Maram sighed. "Kuragari, please carry her," he used his head to point to the floating girl that was about to fall to the ground if someone didn't catch her. With a quick reaction time, the chief swiftly caught the girl in his arms and held her close to his body to make sure she wouldn't fall as he carried her.

"Just get on with it already!" Scaramouche raised his voice. "Where is she?"

"Kunikuzushi," Ei's authoritative voice made him flinch as he hadn't heard his old name in a long time. He wasn't used to hearing her voice again. "Allow this... ghost to speak." As much as the boy wanted to ignore her, Scaramouche said nothing and kept his mouth shut. He couldn't believe that he was allowing the Raiden Shogun to order him around again because it made him feel weak and lesser than what he actually was. Perhaps it was all those years of being a harbinger that made his ego skyrocket.

"Scaramouche, Ei, and Kuragari, please follow me. There is a lot I need to explain." With silence coming from the rest of the archons, Ei hesitantly stepped forward along with the other two males and followed the phantom who led them into the palace which would allow them more privacy. Once inside, the other archons chatted amongst themselves, resuming their reunion with their children and catching up to make up for lost time.

"So what is it that you wanted to explain to us?" the Raiden Shogun folded her arms across her chest and stared into the non-existent soul of Maram with dull and emotionless violet eyes. Saying nothing the former god proceeded to extract one final soul without its memories from (Y/n's) body. Glowing faintly in his translucent hand, the last soul hovered in the air.

"This is Raijin's soul. But it is also (Y/n's) soul. All along, Raijin has been the Tsaritsa's vessel for the heirs. However, 'Raijin' is not her true name and as it turns out... 'Raijin's' real name is '(Y/n),'" Maram looked over the electro archon. "If you could, please continue from here, Ei." The sudden gesture of his hand for her to further explain things shocked the Raiden Shogun. She stayed silent for a few moments and put the pieces together. Of course, Ei knew Raijin's true name, but she never thought that she would turn out to be the Tsaritsa's heir and like the other gods, thought that Raijin had simply been kidnapped.

"...Ei?" The indigo haired boy hesitantly called out to his previous queen which snapped her out of her thoughts. Ei shifted her attention from Maram to the once orphaned boy she once knew as Kunikuzushi, the failed protector of her heir.

"What is it, Kunikuzushi?" Scaramouche flinched once more upon hearing his abandoned and forgotten name that he missed though would never openly admit.

"When I was younger you once told me that Raijin had a different birth name. Her name was something else before you renamed her to protect her origins... What Maram has said... Is... Is it true? That her name is really (Y/n)?" The goddess's violet eyes scanned him before she let out a sigh.

"(Y/n) (L/n) is her real name," she sighed. "The note in her basket explained everything to me." He almost felt his heart stop.

"(Y/n) doesn't exist," the "artificial being" had once told him. "Once the heirs return to their former selves, I will disappear from existence as a creation of the past." She had lied to him. The little flower had lied to him about '(Y/n)' not existing and being just a mere creation. She had told him '(Y/n)' never existed and that she would disappear once the heirs were separated and back to their own bodies. She lied.

"(Y/n)... that's the same name the Tsaritsa gave—"

"To the creation which was the vessel for the heirs," Ei finished for him. She turned her head away from him and shook her head in disbelief at the newfound truth. "(Y/n) (L/n) is who she really is. Her birth parents were from Snezhnaya and she was born here."