Inazuma x Reader - Lost to Eternity

Chapter 29: Past Made Clear

Phaedra: "Unfortunately it has been quite some time since I was able to take a seat myself, but please do not let that stop you. Some of this furniture is still in good enough condition for you to use without risk of hurting yourself, so please do help yourself. You too, young miss Sangonomiya, there shall be no politely standing about for my sake young lady!"

Kokomi: "Hehe, of course. Lady Yuna. I am but a guest here in comparison, it is only right that I adhere to the requests of this realm's true denizens."

Phaedra: "And there will be none of that either! Let us not speak with such hierarchies, I am just Y/N's mother now, nothing more... well, I'm barely that. Oh, how long it's been..."

Y/N: "How long has it been? Since you last saw me, I mean? I don't really know what happened, at least nothing beyond Osial."

Phaedra: "Hmph. That beast! Just hearing it's name is riling me up! How dare he... *hmph* He got what he deserved, and by your hand too! Oh, I'm just so proud of you, my little sun!"

The spectral figure of my mother might not have had much in the way of visual cues, but even I, with my complete lack of experience with a doting parent, could tell that my mother was praising me wholeheartedly... and in a way that would likely be more suitable for someone younger than me chronologically. And if I were to use those novels that I had read in the past as a basis, I might imagine that if she had a physical body still, that I would likely have found myself struggling to breath right about now! But as it is, she seems to be holding herself back so as to avoid the sting of disappointment she'll inevitably get when her barely corporeal body passes through my own...

Y/N: "Huh? But how did you know that I—?"

Phaedra: "We might have been separated by both time and distance, but the water of this world connects us all. The water holds truth and memories within it, and brought it all the way down here as it does everywhere else. It had been so long since last the water told your story to me, until that day in which you fell into the water once more."

Y/N: "When I sealed away Osial..."

Phaedra: "Hehe, we're not quite at that part of the story yet, sweetheart. No, even before that, when you fell into the water due to the surprise of another. When that same person would then jump in to rescue you from the cold depths they sent you careening into. That is when I finally came to learn of your long-awaited return from the unfair grave you were sent to."

Y/N: "When I fell into...? You don't mean... way back then? Hu Tao?"

Phaedra: "Indeed. It would seem she took quite good care of you all throughout your time in Liyue, being thrust into such an alien environment as you were. What a delightful girl she is. If only I might have had the opportunity to thank her in person..."

Y/N: "She was, wasn't she... If only life could have stayed so simple as I had it back then. Heh... I went from being just a local delivery person for a pharmacy in Liyue, to fighting in a nation-wide civil war against the local Archon and her army here in Inazuma."

Kokomi: "...oh? I suppose there is a lot I do not know about you. Is this personal things you would rather keep private? If you would like, I can step outside for a while...?"

Y/N: "It doesn't really matter anymore. It's all in the past now, I don't plan to ever return to Liyue now anyways. The people there hate me and my name for the terror it brought to their ancestors..."

Kokomi: "I see..."

Phaedra: "Never say never, my little Y/N. Who knows where you might drift in the coming days. You should never give up; for even rivers someday wash dams away."