Orion never dreamed that he was just trying to see if he could pull some good things from the gacha in the Great World, only to be seen by the butler—oh wait, no, by the Fatui—and misunderstood as a Falling Star.
When he arrived at Cape Oath, he saw Fatui soldiers meticulously searching every place where a Falling Star might have appeared. Some soldiers had even found the spot where Greater Lord Rukkhadevata was originally inserted, but no matter how they scanned, they couldn't find traces of a Falling Star.
So they grabbed some shovels and started digging.
Go ahead and dig. Even if you dig three feet deep, you won't find anything.
Orion found a place to land. The moment he touched down, he saw Scaramouche standing with his back to him.
Oh, look what we have here?
A wild Bouncing Little Hat? Let's approach him quietly, don't let him notice us. (Bear Grylls' accent)
Scaramouche was deep in thought, but suddenly felt a heat wave rush toward his back. He quickly turned his head to look—
And then he saw a humanoid figure split down the middle, with terrifying blue light emanating from within.
"Wh—Mmmph!"
A massive maw opened and closed. Before Scaramouche could finish his sentence, his head was swallowed whole.
"Lord Balladeer... Huh!" A female Fatui soldier walked over, intending to report something, but what she saw was an incomparably terrifying scene.
A humanoid monster with distorted skin (split down the middle, causing wrinkles all over the skin) was using both hands to hold Scaramouche, stuffing him into its mouth little by little.
And right after that shout, one of the monster's eyes eerily turned to look at her!
"Help, help, help me!!!"
The young Fatui girl scrambled away.
Orion:...Never mind, I'll deal with it later. Having an eyewitness is actually a good thing; it can provide cover for Rosalyne's report.
After stuffing Hat Guy entirely into his body, Orion specifically gave him a private room.
In that space, Hat Guy was completely alone and absolutely sealed off from the outside.
"But isn't this a bit inhumane?" Orion scratched his head, thinking it was too cruel. After all, if a person stays in a space with only themselves, they would definitely go insane, right?
Orion decided to give him some entertainment.
As everyone knows, Hat Guy's current twisted personality stems from his divine mother in his original family and the subsequent scheming by the beast, Dottore the Doctor, with a series of dirty tricks in Tatarasuna.
So he created a television set that would continuously loop how Dottore had schemed against him. This TV only had one channel, and opening it would continuously play the beastly deeds Dottore had committed.
"I'm still too kind-hearted, just leaving the truth for him like this."
Mr. Orion, beautiful in appearance and kind in heart.
Just then, Orion listened to the footsteps. Quite a few Fatui had gathered—they must be the reinforcements called by that female soldier earlier, right?
Orion flashed away and hid. Soon after, he saw many Fatui gather, starting to search for Hat Guy's whereabouts.
"Was it here? Are you sure?"
"It was right here! I saw it with my own eyes, a monster wearing human skin! He, he swallowed Lord Scaramouche!"
"Tsk, how could this happen? Why is Mondstadt such an evil place?"
"Do you think that since Lady La Signora has been missing for so long, maybe she also..."
"Stop talking! Everyone, split into pairs and search! Absolutely do not act alone! Always watch out for the safety of those around you!"
That soldier's remark gave Orion some inspiration. For the next period of time, he would occasionally appear suddenly within a pair of soldiers, and then quickly vanish after they realized there was an extra person in their group.
Panic spread among the Fatui for a while.
Finally, after more than ten minutes, Orion stopped his antics. He was done playing and wanted to return to Liyue.
Just then, a voice suddenly came from the other side of a tree behind him: "That's strange. Scaramouche's aura disappeared right around here?"
Orion instantly felt uneasy. Someone could actually track the residual aura on the surface of his body? He quickly turned and threw a punch. That single punch pierced a tree thick enough for one person to hug and blew up that person's head.
But when he breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the corpse, he found the hair color looked familiar.
Slightly blue, light green hair. He looked again at the ugly mask lying nearby.
"This couldn't be a segment of Dottore the Doctor from his youth, could it?"
.
.
.
.
Somewhere in Snezhnaya, Dottore, who was conducting an experiment, suddenly froze, then looked toward Mondstadt.
"A segment from my youth died? But I didn't feel anything..."
"Did something incredible appear in Mondstadt?"
Suddenly, his expression hardened again.
"How could this be... Before the information dissipated, the physical body actually reconstructed itself? I can communicate with that segment again?
What... what exactly is this?"
..."The more I look, the more he resembles Dottore..."
Perfect. Hat Guy has been watching his past loop for a while now; he should have calmed down, right?
Why don't we ask Hat Guy if this person is Dottore?
Orion focused his mind on Hat Guy's private room, and instantly, a furious roar came out.
"DOT—TO—RE!!!"
"Looks like I don't need to ask. Hat Guy told me directly: this is Dottore the Doctor."
Orion pressed his palm onto Dottore's corpse and used the Authority of the Alien God of Creation to reshape his blown-up skull. And Dottore actually came back to life!
What kind of life force is this? It seems Dottore must have tampered with his own body.
But since they've met, Orion plans to cause Dottore more trouble... Consciousness gradually returned. The segment of Dottore in his youth stood up. He shook his head; his brain still hurt a little.
After a moment, his consciousness returned to normal, and the connection to the Main Body was restored. Only then did Dottore raise his head.
He saw the person standing opposite him, who looked exactly like him.
Dottore was completely stunned. Who was this? A new segment? But after sensing the person, he found nothing. This person was not his segment.
"Who are you?" Dottore in his youth was not as composed as he is now; he shouted directly.
And the "Dottore" opposite him replied, "My name is Zandik."
Dottore froze, then burst into laughter: "Hahahaha! You say your name is Zandik?"
The "Dottore" calling himself Zandik nodded, but was met with a heavy punch from the Dottore segment: "You call yourself Zandik my ass!"
Zandik blocked with his left hand, but the heavy punch actually fractured Zandik's left arm.
The Dottore segment sneered. He thought this guy who suddenly appeared before him was some big shot, but he managed to break his arm with a single punch.
But immediately afterward, Zandik's mind moved, and an Ideal Black Body appeared exactly where Dottore's left arm was. The bone density instantly collapsed below the Schwarzschild Radius, and a black hole lasting only microseconds quickly appeared and vanished. Subsequently, Dottore's left arm also fractured in the same spot.
Both the Dottore segment and the Main Body Dottore were shocked. In their shared consciousness, the Dottore segment had punched Zandik, and then the Dottore segment's own body fractured in the exact same location.
The Dottore segment looked at Zandik in horror, pointing at him: "You!"
"You!" Unexpectedly, Zandik used the Giant Spider's super speed to perform the exact same action. Dottore felt as if he were looking into a mirror.
Dottore then tried a few other movements, and Zandik performed completely identical actions.
An unnamed rage was already burning in the Dottore segment's heart. Just then, he saw Zandik suddenly raise his right hand and deliver a heavy punch to his own chest, a blow that caused Zandik's chest to completely cave in.
Simultaneously, Ideal Fluid activated. Since Ideal Fluid has zero resistance, it did not significantly affect the surrounding airflow. However, a steel fist condensed from the Anemo Element heavily smashed into Dottore's chest.
"Pfft!" A mouthful of blood sprayed out, and the Dottore segment's entire chest collapsed.
He looked in horror at Zandik opposite him, only to find Zandik smiling back.
"You are not me," Zandik said with a smile. "I am you."
After speaking, Zandik delivered a heavy punch toward his own head. The Dottore segment watched this scene with wide eyes. He knew that once this punch landed, Zandik's head would explode, and his own head would suffer the same fate.
He didn't want to die.
"No!" He had just cried out to stop it, but a greater despair descended: the connection between him and the Main Body was forcibly severed by the Main Body.
The Dottore segment froze for a moment, then screamed hysterically: "You bastard Main Body! You treated me as a sacrificial pawn just because you were afraid of being affected!!!"
Subsequently, his consciousness once again fell into chaos.
"Lord Dottore?" It was the same female soldier as before. This time, she seemed to have heard Lord Dottore's voice and specifically came looking for him.
Then she saw two identical Lord Dottores. They both had fractured left arms, collapsed chests, and were both missing half a head.
The only difference was that one Lord Dottore was lying on the ground, while the other was smiling at her with only the bottom half of his face remaining.
The Fatui female soldier broke out in goosebumps, then her body stiffened with fear, and she fell to the ground, sinking into sleep.
.
.
.
.
At the Fatui Headquarters, the Main Body Dottore removed his experimental equipment and slowly walked out of the laboratory.
He raised his head, looking toward the sun through his mask. After a long time, he suddenly burst into laughter.
"Hmph... Hahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Interesting, this is too interesting! You actually want to replace me! What exactly are you, Zandik!"
Nearby, Marionette Sandrone, who had just finished an all-night research session, was passing by and was startled by Dottore's sudden laughter.
"Is he sick?" Sandrone muttered and walked straight away. She was too tired and just wanted to go back to bed and sleep deeply.
After walking past a few covered bridges, she suddenly saw girl Columbina in a courtyard, stuffing many snacks into a large backpack.
"What are you doing?" she asked, confused.
Columbina looked up: "Ah, it's Sandrone. Do you know where Liyue is?"
"Over there." Sandrone simply pointed in the direction of Liyue.
Columbina sensed the direction and thanked Sandrone with a smile: "Thank you, you're so kind to me."
"You're welcome. I'm going to sleep now. Don't you dare sing outside my door and annoy me, understood?"
"I know. Good night, Sandrone."
"Good night, good night."
After saying that, Sandrone impatiently walked away, leaving Columbina alone in the courtyard.
She huffed and puffed as she slung the snack pack onto her back, pressed her ten fingers together, and a brilliant white moonlight radiated out.
"I must find my Moon before the moonlight within my body runs out. So, goodbye, Sandrone. Let's have tea together next time."
With a whoosh, Columbina vanished from the spot, leaving behind only an unfinished sentence.
"I will invite you and Arlecchino to have tea on my Moon."
-
-
-
-