"What are you making?" Yae Miko asked.
"Sweets," Kiyo Seigan replied. "I thought I'd give them a try. A tofu shop can't sell nothing but tofu, can it? I'm planning to expand the dessert menu."
He watched the steamer before him with complete concentration.
It was early morning. A heavy rain had fallen the night before, leaving the air freshly washed.
The tofu shop faced the sea. Through its lattice window, the pale blue sky and azure water each filled half the view. If the sea breeze had not been gently stirring the clouds, summer itself might have seemed like a painting hung within the window frame.
The boy stood with his back to that blue picture and waited in patient silence. When enough time had passed, he cautiously lifted the lid. Billowing steam rushed into his face and filled his vision, its translucent mist catching the blue light of the sky.
Rows of scorched sweets lay inside the steamer.
"Another failure," the fox lady said with obvious delight.
"...How did I fail again?"
Disappointment crossed Kiyo Seigan's face. He had thought himself rather talented in the kitchen. After watching the fox make Kitsune Udon only once, he had learned the dish as naturally as though he had always known it.
"And here I thought I was a genius. I learned Kitsune Udon so quickly..."
"What are these supposed to be?" Yae Miko rose onto her toes and peered at the blackened sweets in the steamer. Her two fox ears stood high as she examined them with some curiosity.
"Mm... Dango Milk. It's a famous Inazuman specialty." Kiyo Seigan frowned. "You mix milk with rice and dough... That's what the recipe says. So why does it keep failing?"
"Simple."
Yae Miko's ears twitched. It was fortunate that her tail was hidden, or it would surely have been swaying behind her. Still balanced lightly upon her toes, she tilted her head. Pale pink hair spilled aside to reveal her slender, smooth neck, while her narrow eyes curved into crescents.
"You simply like Kitsune Udon more than Dango Milk."
"Is that how it works?"
Kiyo Seigan thought her reasoning exceedingly strange.
"Of course." The fox lady nodded smugly. "Why else would you be unable to make it? You like Kitsune Udon more. That is a fact, is it not?"
The boy stared at the blackened, rock-hard sweets on the counter and fell into thought once more.
Perhaps she was right.
"Let me study it a little longer. I'm sure I'll learn eventually. Pastry takes patience."
"With five hundred years of patience, perhaps you might even manage this dish," the fox lady mocked.
Kiyo Seigan could not shake the feeling that she meant something else by that. He considered it, failed to find an answer, and promptly gave up thinking.
"Stop undermining my confidence in the kitchen."
He would learn to make sweets one day. Then he could serve more customers. Kiyo Seigan had clearly begun to regard running the tofu shop as a proper career—because restaurants could make a great deal of money.
Back in Liyue, he and old man Zhongli had been unable to scrape together even a single Mora between them. They had pinched every coin and gone to Lumine for money merely to buy a fish. It had been a lasting humiliation!
He gave the fox's head a light pat. "It's getting late. Time to open the shop. By the way, where are Lumine and Paimon? They aren't still lazing around this early in the morning, are they?"
...
"Ta-da!"
Lumine placed a flower crown upon Kiyo Seigan's head. Woven from white and pale pink sakura, the two colors intertwined along a pair of slender vines.
"As tradition demands—a flower crown for Seigan the Flower Girl!"
She smiled triumphantly. "This one is for Inazuma."
A flower crown... Ah. Kiyo Seigan remembered this tradition.
Lumine had once persuaded him—gently, and at swordpoint—to accept a bargain: whenever she gave him a flower crown, he had to travel with her and cross another destination from her Teyvat Travel Guide. Now that they had reached Inazuma, she meant to drag him across the country as well.
"Lumine, I'm a wanted man..." Kiyo Seigan stared at her as though she were a ghost, nearly tearing his hair out. "The Fatui are hunting me, the Shogunate is searching for me, and you want me to go sightseeing?"
"Then you can owe me the trip." Lumine did not yield an inch. She looked earnestly into Kiyo Seigan's eyes. "You'll owe me until everything is settled. Then you have to travel around Inazuma with me. I've already given you the flower crown."
She nodded emphatically and declared in a tone that permitted no argument, "You're not allowed to give it back!"
Honestly.
Kiyo Seigan shook his head helplessly. "Breakfast is ready. Go eat, then do some honest work. If you keep slacking off, the fox won't pay you—and how are you supposed to travel without money?"
"Idiot."
Lumine planted her hands upon her hips, entirely confident in her reasoning. "If I work hard, the pink-haired fox is merely paying me what my labor is worth. That isn't profit. At most, it's barter. Only when I slack off does my work become worth less than my pay. The difference is what I've earned from her!"
She delivered this speech with her chin raised and her hands on her waist. Morning sunlight gleamed upon her tousled golden hair, illuminating every detail of her self-satisfaction. She looked like Scrat from Ice Age after finally getting his paws on an acorn.
As Lumine saw it, stealing money from that fox and getting the better of the detestable pink-haired menace was a meaningful accomplishment worthy of immense pride.
Miss Lumine remained undefeated.
With perfect confidence, she had made stealing company time sound like an iron law of economics.
This was no longer stealing company time. This was payroll robbery.
Kiyo Seigan wanted no association with such a person.
Shameless.
There was nothing he could do against this relentlessly victorious payroll robber. He could only nod. "Whatever makes you happy... I'm heading out."
"You're going to Mt. Yougou again...?" Lumine asked.
"Mm. Ever since Lady Narukami delivered that strike, the filth deep within Mt. Yougou has almost completely vanished. Only a few monsters remain around the outskirts. They'll probably disappear before long as well."
As he spoke, Kiyo Seigan carefully polished Kamigiri. "I need to grind levels while I still can. I'll leave the tofu shop to you."
"Skipping work again?"
Lumine's hair nearly stood on end.
"Idiot," Kiyo Seigan said with complete confidence. "Slacking off at work only earns pocket change. Grinding is where the real gains are! Do you know nothing about making money?"
That was why Kiyo Seigan wanted no association with mere payroll robbers. A true outlaw had to be ruthless. Imagine still showing up for work—how embarrassing.
"..." Lumine stared at him. After a long while, she gave a helpless sigh, looking as though there was simply no managing him. "Remember to come home for dinner before dark. And be careful."
"One more thing," she added, fussing like an anxious mother. "If you aren't back before dark, you won't be allowed to go next time."
She knew Kiyo Seigan's present ambition: to become the strongest in history. It sounded childish and embarrassingly dramatic, but Lumine believed in him.
"And another thing."
She emphasized the words. Golden morning light gathered within her eyes and scattered into translucent colors. Beneath the early-summer sun, Miss Lumine spoke with complete seriousness.
"Once we've saved enough for the journey, you have to travel around Inazuma with me."
"We're going everywhere!"
Mm.
Kiyo Seigan looked at her and nodded just as seriously.
Once they had saved enough money, once the filth within his body had been purified, and once the tiresome Fatui had vanished, he truly wanted to see the country of Inazuma properly.
...
The early-summer afternoon was mild rather than hot. Mt. Yougou stood close to the sea, and the ocean wind carried cool, damp air through the forest, leaving everything pleasantly fresh.
Afternoon sunlight slanted through the birch woods and fell between the layered branches. Kiyo Seigan wiped the fine sweat from his brow.
[Twenty-one Rifthounds slain: Lv. 41. Three Hilichurl Chieftains slain: Lv. 39...]
[Kiyo Seigan]
[Current Level: Lv. 30]
Another two weeks had passed since Lady Narukami delivered Musou no Hitotachi. The filth in the deepest reaches had been almost entirely destroyed, but traces inevitably remained. Kiyo Seigan had spent those two weeks training by hunting the remnants.
He was progressing quickly. According to the System's scale, he had now reached Level 30. Even so, he could dispatch opponents of a higher level with ease.
With each new battle, his understanding of the legacy Bosacius had left him grew deeper.
Beyond swordsmanship, he had also begun practicing the adeptal arts he had inherited—Talisman Arts, methods of qi refinement, and the like.
Kiyo Seigan could clearly feel himself becoming stronger. He could see the long Steps of Ascension and was gradually setting foot upon the first step. Once the filth within him had been absorbed, he would finally take that step in full.
The thought drew his gaze instinctively to his arm. The filth had carved its marks into his veins like one blood-red wound after another. He could tell that those marks were slowly spreading toward his lungs.
He swayed. A sudden tearing pain ripped through his chest, followed by a cough and a suffocating tightness.
The remaining filth was more troublesome than he had imagined.
"What happened to you?" someone asked curiously.
It was a young woman.
She wore a fox mask and red-and-white shrine maiden robes. The hem of her skirt left part of her smooth calves bare; red cords circled her pale ankles above white tabi and wooden sandals. Tilting her head, she studied the dark markings upon Kiyo Seigan's arm.
"Ah." Only then did she seem to remember. "I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Hanachirusato, and I am a shrine maiden of the Grand Narukami Shrine."
Hanachirusato tilted her head again. Beneath the fox mask, a faint smile rested upon her lips. "And what is your name, young man?"
"Kiyomizu Seigan."
Kiyo Seigan watched the unfamiliar woman. "This is filth."
"Oh. Filth."
Hanachirusato nodded thoughtfully and seemed to consider the matter. After a while, she gave an easy, openhearted laugh. "That is simple enough. As long as the Sacred Sakura remains, the Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual can purify all filth."
For some reason, she placed particular weight upon the words all filth.
"I will help you. I am a shrine maiden, after all. It is my duty."
Kiyo Seigan did not yet understand the full meaning of those words. He merely gazed at the shrine maiden named Hanachirusato in a slight daze. "Have we met somewhere before?"
"What a tired pickup line." Hanachirusato crossed her forearms into an X. "Very tired."
...Damn it!
Yet in the next moment, Hanachirusato blinked her lovely eyes and smiled. "Perhaps we truly have met before. But where could it have been?"
"You said you would help me..." Kiyo Seigan ventured. "Did Miko send you?"
"Ah, Miko."
The shrine maiden named Hanachirusato looked nostalgic. "Yes. Miko sent me."
"Then let's begin."
"There is no hurry." Hanachirusato shook her head. "First, you must grant me one request. Then I will perform the Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual."
"Can't you perform the ritual first and let me grant the request afterward?" Kiyo Seigan was impatient. He could not rest easily for as long as the filth remained within him.
"No."
Hanachirusato crossed her arms into another X and refused to yield. "It must be before the Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual."
She watched Kiyo Seigan quietly, the smile still resting upon her lips. But she did not speak her next thought aloud.
Because once the Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual is over, I will no longer be here.
"What is the request?"
"I want a drink."
Hanachirusato tilted her head. The mild afternoon sunlight scattered over her pure white shrine maiden robes. "We once buried an entire jar of malt ale beneath the great pine at the Pillar General's Mansion. It should be well aged by now. I want to taste it."
The Pillar General's Mansion...
Kiyo Seigan thought this task sounded extraordinarily difficult.
That was the mansion of Inazuma's Pillar General. Even the fox lady would probably be unable to steal something from its grounds. Her Excellency Narukami would surely cut him in half with a single strike.
This was suicide.
At that moment, the voice of the Human Principles System slowly resounded within him.
[Ninth Covenant]
[Before the Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual, retrieve the malt ale buried beneath the pine at the Pillar General's Mansion, then share it with your friend at the Grand Narukami Shrine.]
[Reward: None]
His eyes widened slightly.
A Covenant...
The Vowbound Heart had shattered into fragments, but the Covenants once made had not disappeared. The Human Principles System would still remind him of promises left behind in former lives.
The reward, however, was None, because the Vowbound Heart was already broken.
This was the first Covenant he had encountered in Inazuma.
Had this shrine maiden named Hanachirusato once been his friend as well?
He lowered his head and considered the question in silence.
In the end, he slowly shook his head and refused.
"I cannot go to Inazuma City right now."
At least, not yet. The Fatui were still hunting him. He did not want Lumine to worry any longer, and he had promised to return home before dusk.
More importantly, after what happened with Bosacius, he had decided clearly how he meant to live from now on. He was Kiyo Seigan, not the continuation of any former life.
He would fulfill the promises once made, but never at the cost of failing the people in his present.
Once the Fatui had been dealt with, once the filth within him was gone, and once everything had settled, he would find a way to honor the Covenant.
The Covenants were not compulsory. The Human Principles System merely reminded him that they existed. Even the reward had become None, leaving them pure and untouched by profit.
"I see." Hanachirusato smiled as though it did not matter. "It seems a great deal has happened in Inazuma. I'm sorry. I was mistaken."
"It is a little disappointing, but never mind."
Hanachirusato said it did not matter, and she appeared perfectly unconcerned. Her fox mask concealed her expression, but a gentle, carefree smile remained upon her lips.
She had always been this gentle.
"Then we will perform the ritual first." Hanachirusato nodded firmly and spoke with easy resolution. "We will purge the filth from your body. Let us begin."
She truly seemed not to mind. She truly was smiling.
Yet perhaps the yellow afternoon light had blurred the curve of her lips. For some reason, Kiyo Seigan found that smile terribly sad.
"I..."
Kiyo Seigan paused, then suddenly said, "I cannot retrieve the wine we made in the past. Would you be willing to taste wine made by the person I am now?"
The person I used to be was gone. Would she be willing to become friends with the person I am now?
"Now...?"
Hanachirusato froze.
"Yes. Now."
Beneath the early-summer light, Kiyo Seigan spoke earnestly.
"I learned to brew wine in Liyue. I know how to make Osmanthus Wine. There do not seem to be any osmanthus flowers in Inazuma, but sakura should work. There are plums as well, so I could make plum wine. By then, I will have learned to make sweets too. Plum wine and sweets go well together."
"When it is ready, I'll invite all your friends to the Grand Narukami Shrine. It is sure to be lively."
"Brewing wine takes a long time... But the Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual..." Hanachirusato hesitated.
"Idiot." Kiyo Seigan smiled. "Then postpone the ritual until the wine is ready. This is a promise, after all."
Promises were important. This one offered no reward and compelled him in no way, yet Kiyo Seigan still wanted to keep it.
Hanachirusato gazed at him in a slight daze. The boy smiled with easy confidence, young and in the brilliant prime of his life, and for a moment she seemed to see those bygone days.
The days of long ago.
Back when Makoto still lived, they too had been young beneath the Sacred Sakura. They had composed waka together, played karuta, and traded challenges over their cups.
"Idiot." Hanachirusato shook her head. "I have many friends, you know."
It was a lie.
"Who are they?"
"There is Sasayuri. Ah, he should still be alive." Hanachirusato smiled. "Fortunately, that fellow stepped in when the great serpent invaded Yashiori Island. Otherwise, Sasayuri would have met with terrible luck."
"Mm-hm. Sasayuri." Kiyo Seigan wrote down the name.
"And little Miko."
That one would be easy.
"And Ei. Yes, Her Excellency Narukami herself—though she probably will not come."
Kiyo Seigan blinked innocently and suddenly felt that this task might be far more difficult than he had imagined.