°•¤'Missing Piece '¤•° (Scaramouche X Reader)

Chapter 3: 500 years later

"Is she alive?"

"She's so young."

"Her clothes are not from these times, are they?"

"Let's take her to the city. Maybe someone from the shogunate will know."

"Yeah and maybe we will be rewarded for finding the mysterious domain girl."

You blink few times before opening your eyes.

"Look she's awake!"

You find yourself surrounded by people. You were on the sands of Nazuchi beach.

"I'll take her to the Kamisato estate", someone steps up.

The speaker had blonde hair and didn't look like he was from inazuma.

"Wait. We found her first. We will be taking her with us to Tenshukaku," someone in black and violet battle gear countered, "What makes you think we will hand her over to you, Thoma?"

"Forgive me, sir," the person called Thoma spoke calmly but with confidence, "It is the tri-commission's duty to maintain peace during these tough times. The domain finally disappeared after 500 years and we found someone from within, if I'm not mistaken, Lord Kamisato was responsible for investigating this long lasting domain?"

The people in the battle gear seemed to be at a loss of words. So Thoma continued.

"Hence it will be most natural that I take back this girl to the Kamisato estate. We assure to take good care of her and if necessary, the Lord will present her before the shogunate himself."

Again, at a loss of counter argument, the geared person said in annoyance, "Fine. Let that sleazy outsider have her. Not like we would be rewarded for bringing back something outside of our duties."

After this statement, the people in battle gear departed.

"Hello," Thoma said to you this time, "are you alright?"

"I'm okay," you say, albeit a bit confused by some details that Thoma had just said.

"I'm sure you are confused," says Thoma, "come on, let's go home. Lord Kamisato will explain everything to you- what's your name though?"

"Y/n Niwa."

That's right. Where's Hisa-nii? The kabukimono? What happened to your village in tatarasuna? Thoma was already dragging you along on his way.

"WAIT!" you scream.

"Yeah? What's wrong? Remember anything?" Thoma asked, understandably.

"I'm from Tatarasuna. I have to go back there to the village. The mikage furnace- the villagers were dying. My friend went to get help and my brother- is he alive?"

"The mikage furnace?" Thoma looked at you, surprised, "That place, and in fact the whole of tatarasuna is no place for humans," he said.

"But that's my home...." you started breaking down. What was he saying about the place you all lived?

"Y/n why don't you try to calm down? I'm sure Ayato-sama has all your answers. Let's head off now, shall we?"

Not understanding one bit of what was going on and desperate for answers, you made a run towards tatarasuna.

"Wha- y/n!!!" Thoma shouted behind you.

You kept running. Hisa-nii. Kabuki. Where are they? What did those people mean by "the domain girl"? You could hear Thoma following you, running. But you didn't stop.

You came to a halt only at the edge of the cliff overlooking the mikage furnace.

But- this wasn't the mikage furnace you knew. The entire area was covered with black and violet smoke. No human could be seen and the furnace kept emitting some weird electro sparks. Even looking at it from above made it pretty clear that no one lived in tatarasuna anymore.

Feeling helpless, you plopped down to your knees, tears rolling down your face.

"Y/n."

You looked up at Thoma.

"Come on, y/n-chan. The Kamisatos will be delighted to meet you. And you will have all the answers to all of your questions. Please try to trust me a bit."

Thoma sounded sincere.

What else could you do? You got up and quietly followed him all the way up to the Kamisato estate.

"Ayato-sama," Thoma called upon entering a big room. There appeared a person with pale blue hair and white clothes.

"Ah, Thoma," he sounded calm, "and this must be?"

"Y/n," you mumbled. Ayato looked like a prince out of your fairytale books. He seemed to be around the same age as Hisa-nii.

"How are you y/n-chan?" Ayato asked, getting down on his knees.

"I- I'm okay, A- Ayato-sama," you could barely speak before someone as majestic like him.

"Don't be nervous," he smiled, "I have lots of explaining to do to you so buckle up and get comfortable."

After Ayato finished with his explanation, you were again reduced to tears. You almost couldn't believe what you heard. You had been trapped in that domain for 500 years. And it was a special kind of domain where one couldn't age. So you were still 7 years old. That meant that everyone you knew before entering the domain no longer lived. Hisa-nii was no more. The mikage furnace closed down. No help had arrived. Ayato didn't have any knowledge about the kabukimono. Your only friend. But he couldn't have died right? He wasn't human. He was surely alive. But you had no leads on how to find him. No one knew anyone from 500 years back. Only you remained. Hisa-nii managed to keep you alive for 500 years.

Seeing your situation, Ayato decided that you will be staying at the estate with him and his sister, Ayaka. Ayaka was of your age and Ayato promptly made arrangements for your lodgings with her. You were to share a room with her and learn and train with her.

For a few weeks, you wouldn't speak to anyone. But Ayaka was a warm and friendly girl. She soon broke your shell and became friends with you.

The both of you trained your sword arts day and night. You even witnessed Ayaka receiving a cryo vision in a spar against Ayato.

Years started passing for you with the Kamisato siblings and Thoma.

You even witnessed the vision hunt decree start and Inazuma closed its doors for the rest of the world. Hearing about the shogun sometimes brought back memories about kabuki. You wondered what had happened to him. It saddened you further remembering the promise you had made with him as kids- you had told him that you will be there for him. You prayed every night to the archons for his safety.

You even met the mighty traveller and his companion, Paimon. They were here in Inazuma to fight against the vision hunt decree.

Then came the day when it was your 18th birthday and Ayato wrote to the shogunate about you and if you needed to make an appearance before the shogun. But to your delight, the reply never came.

That night, as usual, you and Ayaka went to sleep, after Ayaka had finished rambling about the traveller. To your surprise, the otherwise calm and composed Ayaka had developed quite the crush on the traveller. And as her best friend, it was your nightly duty to listen to her rants about him.

After ayaka had finally drifted into sleep, you sat up in your bed and started praying for kabuki. You used to remember him more after these nightly rambles about Ayaka's crush on the traveller.

"Archons, please," you prayed silently, "keep kabuki safe wherever he is. And keep him happy."

Your prayer was disrupted by a light tap on your window. You opened your eyes and there he was. The kabukimono. Right outside your window.

(Picture credit: Genshin impact)