Little Flower |Scaramouche| ✓

◤XXXV |When Will This End?|

The first person she laid her eyes on when she woke was an indigo haired boy with matching eyes and a really weird bowl cut. Blinking several times, she slowly rubbed her eyes to see if this was real. Maybe she was still sleeping. Maybe it was all a dream. But when she opened her eyes again, the same boy was still in front of her only this time he looked like he was about to burst out into a fit of tears with how hard he was trying to hold it in.

This boy looked very familiar... He looked kind of like...

Her eyes widened at the realisation of who the boy was and instantaneously burst into a sobbing fit as she rushed over and embraced him in a tight hug. She cried out loudly into his shoulder and in between broken words and sobs, she kept repeating over and over again how much she missed him.

"KUNI! I... I m-missed... so much..." she choked the words out whilst she cried. The tears wouldn't stop coming as she tightened her hold around the poor boy. Even though he looked much different from when she last remembered him, despite his hair being shorter no one had those same indigo eyes as him. It was her Kunikuzushi and he'd finally found her.

"Raijin," Scaramouche began, but it only made her cry louder. So he decided not to say anything and instead allowed her to cry it out as he rocked back and forth with her in his arms. He remembered when she used to cry and how he'd hold her tightly and stayed by her side until she finished where he would then bring her mood back up. That seemed like it happened so long ago yet here he was holding Raijin in his arms again after so long.

While Scaramouche and Raijin were caught in the moment of their reunion, Ei quietly sauntered over to Maram. As much as she wanted to have Raijin back, the girl was never hers to begin with and the queen knew that after this, there was a possibility she'd have to search for a new heir. But unlike the Tsaritsa's unorthodox methods of choosing an heir, the Raiden Shogun would properly find a successor to Inazuma.

"Does Raijin remember what happened during her time as a vessel for the heirs?" she quietly asked the ghost boy. In response, Maram opened his hand and in his palm were the extracted memories of (Y/n) the vessel. The body was solely Raijin at the moment so she knew nothing of what happened while she was in "slumber."

"For now their memories are separated, but I will have some work to do after your reunions. Most of it is just fixing the damage that's been done that was caused by Dottore and the Tsaritsa." Sighing, Ei nodded at the ghost's words. Though the messy work was done, there was still one last thing she had left to do and as much as it would hurt them, the queen had to keep her word and punish the traitor. Happiness doesn't last forever. Ei learned that the hard way with the death of the previous electro archon.

Unbeknownst to the heir and failure of a protector, the Raiden Shogun approached them with an aura of regret knowing that she had to break their happy reunion with unfortunate news. Raijin continued to sob into the boy's chest, staining his clothes with her overflowing tears. He stayed silent and provided her silent comfort that eventually worked in calming her down as the girl's cries gradually ceased. It was then that Ei struck.

"Kunikuzushi, you have completed your final task. Your time here is done and divine punishment will be issued," she declared, raising her hands up to her chest as electro energy gathered around that area. In what seemed to be slow motion, the queen pulled a sword, a beautiful katana, out of her chest that buzzed with the power of electro. She didn't care that there were other people around. Inazuma was so far from Snezhnaya and by the time they arrived back in her nation, the boy would've had multiple chances to escape and the Narukami Ogosho simply couldn't let a traitor run out in the wild. Eyes widening at this, Scaramouche pulled away from Raijin and met the glowing violet eyes of the Raiden Shogun. "Now, you shall perish and face my Musou no Hitotachi and be executed for betraying Inazuma."

"W-what...?" Raijin was confused and scared at the sight of her mother raising her sword against the boy. What was happening? Why was she going to execute Kuni? "Why... why is Kuni..." she couldn't finish her question as a lump in her throat formed and caught her words in a net so that they wouldn't leave her mouth and be vocalized. "S-stop! Don't kill him!" Raijin pulled on Scaramouche's wrist and pulled him behind her so that she was now shielding him from her mother. She burst out into another fit of tears as she tightly held onto the boy.

"Raijin, stand aside," Ei coldly told the girl. "He is no longer your bodyguard."

"NO! I-I won't abandon Kuni! Please... please don't kill him! He didn't do anything wrong! Please... please... please don't take him away from—" She was cut off by a sharp pain passing through her head. A scream escaped her and she collapsed to her knees, cradling her head tightly as she whimpered and whispered for the pain to stop and go away. At the same time this happened, the memories of (Y/n) the vessel violently shook in Maram's hand and the ghost boy could feel it starting to burn even though he technically wasn't supposed to feel anything.

Gritting his teeth, Maram whipped his head over to Kuragari and said, "Quick, get your cousin and carry her into the room ahead of us. I'm not sure why this is happening, but I need to fix this quickly before anything bad occurs."

"W-wait, why is Raijin..." Scaramouche broke eye contact with Ei to look at the girl. Kuragari had rushed over to his cousin and picked her up just like before with a worried look on his face. The Raiden Shogun had lowered her sword and though it was still crackling with lightning, she dared not do anything when something was happening with Raijin.

"I can't explain everything right now. I don't know why or how, but I need to fix everything urgently. I'll have to explain everything to her and just..." he paused and shook his head multiple times. "Kuragari, please hurry, I will come shortly." Nodding to this, the lavender haired male carefully walked over with swiftness in his steps. Raijin still clutched her head in pain, whimpers still escaping from her.

"N-no! Raijin... Raijin... Don't take her away again!" Scaramouche reached his hand out towards her but was stopped by Ei's blade landing upon his shoulder. It made him freeze as he slowly lowered his arm and averted his eyes to the glowing sword.

"You won't see her again after your punishment. There is no point chasing after all," she said.

"P-please... l-leave him alone..." Raijin rasped from Kuragari's arms. "D-don't... don't kill... him p-please..." Just the sound of her voice was enough to bring some amount of emotion to Ei's eyes as she lowered her sword and let it disperse into particles in the air. The glowing aura of electro that was once around her ceased as she sighed and stepped away from the boy.

Maram quickly ushered Kuragari into the throne room and shut the door, not bothering to lock it. There was much work he needed to do to fix this mess and explain everything to the girl.

"You'll let me live? Just like that...?" Scaramouche looked up at the Raiden Shogun.

"If it had been up to me I would've used my sword on you, but... it is because of Raijin that I will let you live and dismiss divine punishment from your name," Ei said monotonously. Without another word, the electro queen quietly left Zapolyarny Palace to be out in the cold to collect her thoughts. She didn't want the atmosphere to be tense with her presence.

After Ei had left, the chief of the Cerise Praelia slipped out of the throne room with an unreadable expression on his face. His mind was still perplexed at all this and there were so many questions he had that couldn't be formed into words.

Neither of the two spoke a word to each other as they waited in silence.