Leaden clouds spread across the edge of the wasteland. Above them hung a sky the color of dead ash. The sun had taken on a steely hue, casting cold light across the land of Khaenri'ah.
The nation was dying.
The Abyss watched. The Seven passed judgment. Curses surged from beneath the earth and twisted the people into monsters without reason, creatures that wandered aimlessly across the wilds.
The Traveler walked through that doomed nation, searching endlessly for someone.
Ever since awakening, Lumine had been looking for her traveling companion.
That unreasonable bastard who had thrust a copy of the Teyvat Travel Guide into her hands, irresponsibly demanded that she keep moving forward, and then left on his own.
She knew he came from Khaenri'ah. Throughout all their years of travel, his gaze had always turned toward his homeland. Whenever he spoke of it, a gentle smile would touch his lips, and he would tell Lumine that they had to visit someday.
It was a beautiful place.
And so Lumine came to Khaenri'ah.
But Khaenri'ah was not beautiful. By the time she arrived, war had already swallowed it. A murky sky hung over scarlet earth, and the nation stood upon the brink of destruction.
From the moment Khaenri'ah reached toward forbidden knowledge and drew the gaze of the Abyss, its destruction had been inevitable.
Lumine called out his name. She overturned every slab of rubble and searched every ruin with nearly obsessive determination.
One day. Two days...
Blood welled beneath her fingernails. Her voice went hoarse. Still, she did not find him.
When monsters of the Abyss blocked her path, she killed them. One after another, then another and another, never ceasing as she pressed deeper into the ruined land.
She knew how dearly he loved his homeland. With Khaenri'ah on the verge of annihilation, he would surely have returned.
So she kept searching.
What she did not know was that the bastard had died more than ten years before.
The wanderer had never made it home to the land for which he had always yearned.
Lumine was exhausted.
"But we promised..." she murmured. "We promised we would travel together."
At last, she reached the deepest part of Khaenri'ah.
Her entire body was covered in wounds, and blood stained her face.
Clutching the thick travel guide to her chest, Lumine raised her eyes toward the god in the sky. The being from Celestia was shrouded in light, pure-white hair drifting around her.
The Sustainer of Heavenly Principles lowered her gaze and met Lumine's eyes.
After a long silence, she raised one finger.
Chains forged from the laws of the world pierced Lumine's chest and pinned her to the decaying earth.
"I found... you..."
The light in Lumine's eyes slowly dimmed. She murmured to someone who was not there.
—
Kiyo awoke from his second dream.
For no apparent reason, he touched the corner of one eye and found it damp. He sat upright upon the tatami, his chest heaving violently. The lingering terror took a long time to subside.
What an inexplicable dream.
Ever since returning from that realm of consciousness, he had been having dreams like this.
Kiyo instinctively looked toward the other side of the tatami. Lumine lay beside him, whole and unharmed. Her breathing was steady, and he could feel the warm vitality of her presence, carrying a faint, clean fragrance.
He released a breath he had not realized he was holding.
Only a dream.
This time, she really was asleep. Kiyo patted her cheek. Lumine made a soft grumbling sound and rolled over.
She truly was exhausted. Nothing he did could wake her.
Ever since returning from Tenshukaku, she had remained beside Kiyo's bed like a mother cat guarding her kitten. Only after he returned from the realm of consciousness had her anxious heart finally settled enough for her to fall into a deep sleep.
Kiyo quietly got out of bed and opened the door. Dusk had almost entirely faded. The sky was gradually revealing the deep colors of night, with only a few final strands of sunset clinging to the horizon.
The first thing he saw outside—
Was Kunikuzushi digging up his grave.
"..."
Kiyo's face went blank.
He was furious.
What an unfilial brat! How could Kunikuzushi start something as important as grave robbing without inviting him? Was he planning to keep all the loot for himself?
The corner of Kiyo's mouth twitched. He forced himself to look away from this contemptible behavior and headed down the corridor.
Tomorrow would be the final Duel Before the Throne.
He had to find some way to draw Beelzebul out of the Plane of Euthymia.
The gathering beneath the Sacred Sakura was not the only reason. More importantly, Inazuma needed a true ruler.
The Commissions were in disarray, while the Sakoku Decree and Vision Hunt Decree were cruel beyond measure.
What good would driving out the Fatui accomplish on its own?
Unless Inazuma's chaotic government changed, another faction would eventually take their place. The Commissions would continue their abuses, while the Sakoku and Vision Hunt Decrees ground the people beneath them. Kiyo had witnessed their suffering throughout his six months in Inazuma.
But he had no good solution.
In truth, he knew nothing about Her Excellency Narukami. The Kiyo Seigan of the present was only an outsider.
Nor could he reach Beelzebul. His previous arrival at the boundary of her consciousness had been pure chance, and he had no idea how he had managed it.
His only real talent was cooking.
Dango Milk...?
But he could never make that dessert properly.
Come to think of it, how had he learned to prepare Kitsune Udon?
At the right place and the right time, the knowledge had simply returned to him. The moment he stood inside that tofu shop, he had known how to make it.
Perhaps time and place were ingredients in their own right.
Kiyo borrowed the kitchen of the Pillar General's mansion.
The old residence had a long covered corridor, with a traditional Inazuman kitchen at its furthest end.
What had he felt in his past life while making this dessert?
Idle autumn sunlight cast pine shadows across the room. The mellow glow of sunset melted along the window frame until only a thin layer of gold remained.
The kitchen was kept immaculate. Centuries ago, Kiyono Raimei had cooked here just as he had at the tofu shop, kneading dough and preparing that dessert for his sovereign.
It required milk and dango. But who had liked the milk, and who had liked the dango? Why had the two been combined?
And who had taught him the recipe?
Kiyo became lost in thought. Something vague stirred in his mind: countless spring days beneath early sakura in brilliant bloom.
Unnoticed within his clothes, the Seed of the Sacred Sakura began to glow. It seemed to be conveying something to him. A voice reached him from the distant past, but when he tried to pursue it, he found nothing.
Those blurred and distant days.
How was Dango Milk made...?
"You burned it. Ei won't like that."
"It's too rich."
"Too sweet and too rich."
"This is an order from Narukami. Open wide—ah."
"Let's call it Dango Milk. Ei likes milk, and I love dango. This way, both milk and dango will always be there."
An unknown amount of time passed.
Kiyo blinked and finally returned to himself. Lowering his eyes, he discovered in surprise that the dessert was already finished. Snow-white pieces rested within the steamer, giving off a faint, sweet fragrance.
Then he saw more.
He saw earth scorched by corruption. He saw Khaenri'ah fall. He saw a bloodstained figure drop like scattering sakura, beautiful and brief.
Kiyo wanted to help her—to save her—but nearly five hundred years stood between them. He could do nothing.
He saw the oni maiden die miserably within the forest. He saw the Great Tengu's body pierced by an unknown being. He saw corruption engulf Inazuma completely.
Raiden Makoto died. Mikoshi Chiyo died. Sasayuri died...
Countless people and living creatures perished beneath the tide of corruption. Nothing stood upon Narukami Island. The Sacred Sakura that should have covered the sky did not exist, leaving the rampant filth to wander endlessly with nothing to cleanse it.
Inazuma stood on the verge of annihilation.
Everyone died.
Kiyo slowly exhaled.
[This is the original timeline.]
[The true past.]
The calm voice of the Human Principles System suddenly spoke beside his ear.
The original timeline...?
Kiyo froze.
In the true past, the Sacred Sakura had never existed. With nothing to cleanse Inazuma's corruption, it had accumulated until it became even more terrible than the karmic corruption of the Chasm.
In the original timeline, they would all have died.
But why had the Sacred Sakura not existed?
According to every account in Inazuma, it had stood there from the very beginning.
Kiyo drew the Seed of the Sacred Sakura from his clothes. He had clearly realized something.
"The seed in my hand..." he said gravely. "Is this the true Sacred Sakura?"
Time was indistinct within a realm of consciousness. Past and present could exist there simultaneously, and that was precisely where Kiyo had obtained the seed.
[You can use the realm of consciousness as a passage and plant this seed in the past.]
[You are the only one who can go.]
"A realm of consciousness can send someone into the past?"
Kiyo remembered the place he had seen: rolling cloudbanks beneath a flickering sky, warm sunset bleeding into cold ruins. It bordered the Plane of Euthymia, yet the two could never touch.
That realm was immensely powerful.
Kiyo could feel that it existed upon a level faintly higher than even the Plane of Euthymia. From within it, he could observe Ei, while Ei remained unable to perceive him.
A consciousness that surpassed an Archon's.
It might well be the strongest in the world.
Yet Sasayuri had said that the realm did not belong to Makoto.
"Whose consciousness is it?" Kiyo asked.
[Yours.]
"Mine?" Kiyo stared. "Kiyono Raimei's?"
[No. Yours.]
The System's voice remained perfectly calm. Yet the calmer it sounded, the more earthshaking the truth beneath its words became.
[It belongs to Kiyo Seigan.]
His consciousness.
The idea felt absurd. That realm was his?
[The realm belonged to the Kiyo Seigan who traveled into the past. He left it there, but it remains your consciousness.]
[Your past consciousness and your present consciousness can form a passage.]
[That is why only you can use it as a doorway—to plant the seed, among other things.]
Kiyo's eyes widened slightly. He suddenly remembered another matter that had troubled him for some time.
The corruption within Mikoshi Chiyo.
When Kiyo first examined her body, he discovered that someone had devoured most of the filth long ago. Otherwise, she could never have survived until the present.
But other than Kiyo, who had mastered Nuo Exorcism, who in this world could devour corruption from another person's body?
Even Rex Lapis did not possess that art.
Mikoshi Chiyo had been consumed completely. Kiyono Raimei could not have saved her. Raiden Ei could not have saved her. No one in the Inazuma of that age could have done so.
But now the answer was almost self-evident.
The person who purged the corruption from Torachiyo had always been Kiyo Seigan—and no one else.
The present Kiyo had returned to the past and saved Mikoshi Chiyo after the filth consumed her, removing most of the corruption and allowing her to survive until now.
He had gone back in time.
He had also left behind the Seed of the Sacred Sakura and his realm of consciousness.
So many things finally made sense. Who had ordered Ioroi to protect Mikoshi Chiyo? Who had told them to remain within the shrine until that person returned for them?
Had Kiyo not returned to that very shrine five hundred years later?
He remembered his conversation with Ioroi as clearly as though it were happening again.
"You never thought about leaving in all these centuries?"
"I can't. Ioroi promised him I would protect this shrine. I'm not allowed to leave!"
"Was that person Kiyono Raimei?"
"Yes... and no. Ioroi can't tell you!"
"Could that person have been me?"
"You look so much alike! The same!"
They looked alike.
The same.
Ioroi had let the truth slip.
He had not said they felt alike or carried the same presence. He had said they looked alike.
That distinction was the key.
Kiyo's appearance changed with every reincarnation. His innermost self remained the same, but every life came with a different body.
His mannerisms, temperament, and habits might feel familiar. The fox lady and the Salt God had both recognized something within him. But they had not recognized his face.
Ioroi had.
That meant the person Ioroi met five hundred years ago had not been one of Kiyo's past lives.
It had been the present Kiyo Seigan.
Their faces were identical because they were the same person.
He truly had passed through his own realm of consciousness, traveled into the past, and planted the Sacred Sakura. Perhaps he had done far more besides.
He had rewritten the original timeline in which everyone died and Inazuma was destroyed, creating the present in its place.
And perhaps...
Makoto truly was still alive.