like the wind that flows through your hair

𝚇𝚇𝙸. 𝙿𝙻𝙰𝙽𝙴𝚃 𝙱𝙴𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻

Ayato laid in his room, motionless. His complexion was utterly white, as if sculpted from bleached bone. The scuffle with his sister recently had left him in a coma from shock and blood loss, and the wound he had sustained during battle had torn open again. It has been a week already. The clutches of the grim reaper were circling him like a vulture. Maybe it was time for the Kamisato Clan to be prepared for the worst.

Thoma sat beside his lord's bedside with his head bowed. With his unkempt hair and sallow cheeks, he looked like the walking dead. He had not left Ayato's side since the incident, wracked by guilt and worry. He waved away all the food offered by the servants, barely registering their presence. He only looked up briefly when one of them quietly announced the Shogun's arrival.

"Good evening, Thoma." The Electro Archon swept into the room, bringing with her the frosty winter air. "How is he?"

"What does it look like...?" Thoma hardly cared how impudent his words sounded now. Nothing mattered without Lord Kamisato. If she struck him down right there, it may have been a mercy. "I need air. Excuse me, Shogun."

Ei's eye twitched at the young housekeeper's rebuttal but made no reply. She turned her attention to Ayato, her countenance softening. Despite the tension between her reign and the Yashiro Commission, she had come to appreciate their dedication in protecting Inazuma while she was in the Plane of Euthymia. She was a proud ruler, but even she could not deny that the nation would not be flourishing today without its commissioner.

She wanted to command him to wake up, but she knew it would be useless. For the first time in her life, she felt utterly helpless, for even an archon could not control Death.

Every beep of the heart monitor made her afraid that it would be the last. And she didn't understand why. As she stared down at Ayato's unmoving figure, a terror so strange slammed her in the chest. Suddenly, the reality of her ineptitude as the Shogun hit her at once. The tears that burned her violet eyes shocked her. She couldn't remember the last time she had cried. For two thousand years, she had chased eternity. She did find eternity. An eternity of loneliness. She was a coward who preserved only her spirit while leaving her nation to waste away and suffer. What did it matter when the rest of the world inevitably succumbs to death? She was a child who refused to grow up and almost lost everything. And now, watching the commissioner slip away, she realized that she didn't even know how to be a decent leader on her own. She was terrified—not for Ayato—but by who she had become.

Meanwhile, Ayato tried desperately to stop his consciousness from sliding into the darkness. Night after night, the Commissioner fought to regain consciousness with no success. He wanted to wail for some higher power's assistance. He could not see anything, but he heard perfectly every breath, every heartbeat, and every shuffle of feet that surrounded him.

Then, suddenly, they vanished. Familiar voices floated into his consciousness and beckoned him. The voices of his parents. They whispered in his ear, their words floating up in the air and twirling around his broken body. When their voices ceased, Ayato felt a deep loss. Despair. Their final words rang through him loud and clear. 'You must escape, or you will be lost. You are a warrior. The head of our clan. The Pillar of Fortitude. Remember your duty and how much your people love you. So, open your eyes now, beloved son!' Like a fish of the deep rising to the surface of bright air and sun, Ayato swam up into consciousness and into a whiter world than he had ever seen. The daylight was blinding.

"Whose funeral is it?" He whispered, smirking weakly. "So many sad eyes, staring."

Ei gasped, covering her mouth in shock at the miraculous sight. She quickly wiped her tears and collected her composure. "Lord Kamisato... You are finally awake."

The servants greeted him hastily in relief and scrambled to fetch the doctor and Thoma, leaving them alone in the room.

"Well, well. If even the high and mighty Raiden Shogun came to visit me, I must have been out awhile. Or did I become that famous overnight?" Ayato winced as he attempted to sit up. His mind felt reborn, yet his body was weak.

"You should stay still until the doctor checks your condition."

"Yes, Your Majesty." She couldn't tell if he was sarcastic. His gaze flickered around the room, as if getting his bearings.

"Is there anything I can do for you at the moment?" She asked, choosing to overlook his attitude. She couldn't blame him.

After a pause, his piercing blues found her once more. "Yes, actually. I can't seem to recall the details of what happened the night I was injured again. I am having trouble remembering people's faces or their significance in my life. I believe it is due to a very traumatic experience. However, I would rather know the truth. Do you know what happened to me that night, Shogun?" He blinked slowly. Deliberately.

Ei's eyes widened ever so slightly. He...doesn't remember? The consequences of that night were more severe than she had anticipated. Her fist clenched slowly at her side as she recalled that woman's silhouette. The pent-up anger, frustration, and despair that had been haunting her culminated into a dark vengeance. "I apologize. I do not know the details. I only arrived to see you unconscious on the floor."

The flash of her violet eyes did not escape Ayato's gaze, but he only responded curtly, "I see."

Unbeknownst to them both, an ominous presence was approaching from the distance. It loomed over the entire estate. Dark clouds swirled overhead, sharply reminiscent of the skies two thousand years ago—just moments before the Geo Archon's ultimate wrath pummeled the Earth and ended the Archon Wars. An imposing silhouette emerged from the crackling mist, as swiftly and inevitable as the grim reaper rising from Hell. The ground crumbled and earthquakes erupted from where his booted heels fell.

As Morax stormed through the front gate of the Kamisato Estate, the guards cowered in fear from his murderous aura. Although Ayaka had tried fervently to stop him after he finally learned the truth from her, his retribution would not be quelled. There was no sign of Ayato anywhere as his furious diamond-shaped hues searched the perimeter. "Ayato! You son of a bitch! Where are you!?"

Zhongli swept forth like a hurricane, barely glancing at the guards who stood in his way as he manifested a golden forcefield that knocked them all aside effortlessly. His fury filled the Estate—the very air became suffocating. He stalked down the corridor with his lower jaw jutting out, giving him the look of a vengeful boxer, grinding his teeth so loud one could hear it across the room. His acute hearing finally detected the clan leader's voice from the master suite. Zhongli swore aloud and kicked the door in, sending it careening off its hinges as he strode in like Lucifer himself come to collect a sinner's soul. He froze briefly in consternation when he saw the familiar silhouette of a woman at the foot of the bed. Almost immediately, he roared and charged at the commissioner and snatched him by the lapels, slamming him against the wall. The wind was completely knocked from Ayato's lungs, and he struggled feebly against the ex-archon's death grip, but he was no match in his current state. They crashed into the cabinets, breaking the porcelain vases and ripping tapestries from the walls.

Ei stood, shell-shocked at the brutal spectacle. "Morax...?! What the hell are you doing?! STOP IT NOW!!" She shrieked, lunging forward, but before she could get close, Morax erected a jagged stone jail from the ground that trapped her in place, rendering her immobile.

"Stay. Out. Of. This." He snarled.

Morax was thousands of years her senior, and after years of neglect, Ei's elemental abilities were powerless against him. She could only watch in horror as he tossed Ayato around like a ragdoll.

Returning his attention to the wheezing commissioner in his hands, his brass knuckles glinted as Zhongli grabbed Ayato by the neck and began to pummel his face. When his brother-in-law finally fell to the floor, Zhongli kicked him hard in the ribs until he heard bones snapping like twigs.

"If you so much as breathe the same air that Ayaka does... I will annihilate you." He hissed at the crumpled Hydro-wielder then turned on his heel and left the room.

"Ayaka...? Who..." Before he could finish, Kamisato Ayato blacked out cold.