Another 3 years passed.
I'm now around 600 hundred years old. I think at least, I lost count after a few decades, but I think you would understand it if you lived the same year again and again.
Every year has its Sakura Bloom Festival, New Year, and a Summer Festival. Every year has its cold season and warm season. Every 2 decades there is a new generation that springs forward bursting with energy and enthusiasm, wanting to shape the world according to their ideal, only to be rebuffed by the unforgiving reality, turning into the same generation they had sworn to never turn into.
And like that, centuries pass without change.
The fact that the society in Inazuma is the same as it was 500 years ago is very telling. Despite a few hiccups, like Ei's first failed puppet everything has been more or less good. Until now that is.
Lately, the Fatui from Snezhnaya have been trying to infiltrate Inazuma both openly and covertly, so we will need to keep an eye on them.
As I was saying, everything has been peaceful except for some problems but overall it has been a relaxing 500 years, for both good and bad.
I started to think that anyone wanting to cause some change would be eviscerated by Ei's blade. She has this stupid idea of eternity in her head, and anyone seeking change will be imprisoned at best.
So imagine my surprise when, at the height of boredom, someone like that appeared. I am used to measuring the time in generations, so a single year is something I consider inconsequential.
Kenshin, that annoying baby. Maybe I should stop calling him a baby, he will be 5 soon.
The same baby that couldn't contain his urge to pee on me, the second most important person in this nation. The same baby that annoyed absolutely everyone with his unbelievable lung capacity. The same baby may be the one to change this boring land. And the same baby that has a fearsome ability.
He can see souls, and that is one of the most dangerous things in this world where some dangerous truths are hidden behind a mortal vessel.
Of course, I know that this ability is not that unusual. There are plenty of people in Liyue who are able to see ghosts, and even here, in this same shrine, there are plenty of mikos who can do the same and even work as exorcists.
But Kenshin's ability is on another level. Only I know where the entrance to the Plane of Euthymia is located, just beneath this shrine. And despite it being hidden under numerous layers and defensive measures Kenshin was able to bypass all that and even speak with Ei. This is only my assumption, but there is no other way he could have learned that way. And every time I want to ask Ei about that all I get is a curt conversation with that robot.
Just remembering it makes me angry.
I had to let Kenshin live in the shrine to know more about his ability and its limits. We can't afford to have a random child with the power to peer into souls alone. In the shrine, I will see that he grows up being someone who knows how to use his ability responsibly.
These last years taking care of him hadn't been half as bad as I expected, but it may have been due to the fact that I didn't take care of him. Except for some occasional times when I would check how he was progressing, the only moments I saw him was when he came to me screaming for another challenge.
'Pink woman, I will win this time' he would say with a determined expression, before leaving with a frustrated one.
I am not a small woman who doesn't let a kid win. I am not human at all after all, and there are a few competitions I'm not interested in participating.
"PINK WOMAN!"
Here comes the rascal again, with his black hair and brown eyes that were causing panic in whoever saw them. What will it be now?.
See who can spit further? Who can sneeze more?. Who can make a more satisfying slap sound?
And yet the kid came at me crying.
For the first time since our wonderful first encounter, I saw the crying face of this little rascal.
Has he stumbled on a rock or something?
"What's wrong kid?. Are you going to ask the 'evil pink woman' for help?" I said teasingly to him. Even if I'm worried about him I can't let my image slip right?
"There is someone cursed!" he shouted to me. In another situation, I would find a little kid saying something like that with a serious face amusing, but knowing about his uniqueness, I can only believe him.
"Have you talked to the other priestesses? I'm quite busy after all" I said with a light smile.
"They can't help him!. They are not strong!" Kenshin said while shaking his head.
"Haaaah, okay then, let me see him. Is he in the shrine?" I answered with a bored tone, but I was quite concerned about this.
Kenshin has been exposed to a lot of people who come to the shrine for a variety of things and some of them were curses.
Even though 9 out of 10 cases were just paranoid people, the 1 case left was truly cursed. Last month we got someone with a pretty dangerous curse, every time she slept she would have a nightmare of a monster chasing her, and every wound she got in the dream was reflected in her real body.
And even then, Kenshin didn't say anything else than 'she is cursed'.
So what kind of curse has he seen to have this reaction? I wonder if this person is still alive after the time Kenshin needed to come here.
"No, he is not. I went to Ayato's home to play, and I saw him in the way" replied Kenshin, not aware that he just said he snuck out of the shrine.
"I wonder what were you doing there" I asked with a mischievous smile.
"Huh" was all that the kid said with a face showing regret.
"Pink woman!. There is a cursed person, there is no time for that".
"Yes, yes, I heard you" there is no way I will let him escape. "What can you tell me about this curse?".
"I-I don't know... It's very weird. It's like it's attached to him and causing him pain" he said weakly.
"Hmmm" I mused about what kind of thing should I expect. Well, I'll be able to cleanse the curse no matter what. I'll just need to tap into more of my true power.
"Can you help him?" asked Kenshin in a vulnerable tone. To say that hearing it I was unmoved would be a lie, I don't want to see his sad face after all. Even if he is a pain.
"Of course, who do you think I am?" I boasted. He doesn't know about my nature or my true powers, only Ei does and I don't see her talking about that. Or talking in general.
"Pink woman" he answered quickly. Too quick for my taste.
"And the most powerful miko in Inazuma" I explained to the dumb child what it meant to be the Head Miko.
"So will you help him?" he asked in a hopeful tone.
"Of course, it's my duty as the Miko of the Narukami Shrine" I answered with a smile, a sincere one this time.
"You promise?".
"Yes, I do. Now stop wasting our time and take me to the cursed person".
"He's right there, near the forest".
"And what were you doing in the forest?" I need to keep an eye on him and teach him about his new position.
With the Fatui doing suspicious things, Kenshin is a good hostage to blackmail me. Even while doing nothing this brat is a pain.
"I went to play with Ayato, but I saw something weird and followed it until I found the cursed person" Kenshin replied honestly while shivering remembering the curse.
I saw that, so I needed to ask more about it. It may help me understand Kenshin's ability.
"What did you see from even outside the forest?" the fact that he could see the course means that it might be tied to the soul. Of course, I am confident I can cleanse it but the process may be tricky and we may need to carry this victim to the shrine.
"It was like fog. It smelled very bad, but that's not the worst part" Kenshin replied, his shivers intensifying.
"What's the worst part?"
"It sounded like someone was talking, or screaming..." he trailed off at the end, clearly scared.
"Are you sure?" for a curse to speak something really bad is involved here, Maybe it's a remnant of some god from the Archon War?
Maybe I should call Ei for this.
"Yes, but I'm not worried" answered Kenshin, recovering his usual upbeat mood.
"Well, you may not be worried, but you were scared" I teased him.
"No, I wasn't!. Maybe a bit, but mom tells me that courage is not about not having fears, but conquering them" he nodded while nodding sagely with his head.
"While I admit your mom knows what to say, that doesn't explain why you are not worried anymore," I asked while thinking about the curse and possible ways to avoid getting Kenshin in danger.
"....." he looked to the side, not wanting to establish eye contact with me.
"If you don't tell me, maybe I should leave. Maybe the curse is not that serious" I joked. The fact that he is a kid will make him unable to discern threats from false bravado.
"No!. It's because....you are here" he muttered with a red face.
I stopped and looked at him. While I consider him an annoying albeit dangerous kid, I would have never thought that he could develop such faith in me that despite getting very scared, just my presence here makes him believe that everything will be fine. I feel a little touched by his trust, after all, it has been a long while since I felt that I was someone important in another person's life, even if it was a kid.
The only one is Ei, but we haven't talked in centuries.
Of course, there are a lot of people counting on the Head Miko of the Narukami Shrine, but this dumb kid doesn't even know what that means. That only tells me that he trusts me and not my position.
"Hooo, so you trust me that much" I teased him, not allowing him to see my turbulent emotions.
"Of course. After all, for all my strength and intelligence I haven't been able to beat you. Of course, you must be amazing to be able to beat me" he nodded while patting his nonexistent 'biceps'.
"What are you trying to show? Those noodles you have for arms?" I mocked him, finding his gestures the most amusing thing I have seen lately.
"Shut up! I will grow. It must be bad for you, no matter how much time passes you will still be that short" he mocked me back.
Before I could answer him and tell him that I had a lot of admirers, not all of them men, he grabbed my priest garb.
"What's wrong, you scared?" he is not going to leave it be, he is going to explode and I will have blackmail material for his future unruly age.
One of the perks of being a centenary being is that you learn how to play a very long game.
"*Nod*" That's all he did while hiding behind me, but pushing me in the direction he remembered seeing the cursed man.
While I may have found this funny, sensing her trembling hands on my kimono while looking from my back made me feel a bit protective. Is this what the gap moe I read about is? The normally hyperactive and unruly kid is trembling in fear behind me, maybe it's because of this gap that I find him cute now.
"Don't worry, I promised you, didn't I? I will dispel the curse" I tried to reassure him in a gentle voice that surprised even me.
"Yes, you said it" his mood seemed to recover a bit, but not enough to make him release my kimono.
"It's here" he said while pointing a trembling hand at a tree.
"Well, let us see the mysterious man. I will dispel the curse and return to my novel. Come out, I'm the Head Priestess, I'm here to dispel your curse!". Why is he hiding now after sending Kenshin to call for me?
"Pink woman" I saw Kenshin tugging at my kimono while pointing down.
Then I felt shock, worry, and sadness.
Because on the floor next to the tree was a hilichurl.
Naturally, I knew about them and their tragic fate. Even if Ei wasn't in the Cataclysm fight to understand exactly the reasons an entire country was doomed to this fate, there are enough survivors, my friend Ganyu being one of them. So it wasn't like we didn't know about it.
I felt shocked because Kenshin, while not even 5 years old was able to detect such a powerful curse.
I felt worried because this is not something Kenshin should be meddling with. It could get him killed or attract the attention of the ones who created this curse.
And I felt sorry because, for the very first time in my life, I would break a promise. Because I can't dispel this curse.
"So, when are you going to heal him?" The kid looked at me with hopeful eyes.
"I....can't" I looked to the floor in defeat.
It's not only that I'm not strong enough to dispel it. It's just impossible.
The curse had fused with the human soul over centuries, making it unable to be separated. If you try to separate the course it will cause damage to the host, to the point that by the time you have separated the curse the host's soul would be destroyed. So even if I were ten times more powerful, I would still be helpless.
"What do you mean you can't?" the kid looked at me like the notion didn't even cross his head. It only made the truth even more painful.
"I'm not strong enough" I replied ruefully.
Even if I was strong enough I still wouldn't try to cleanse it as doing that would only attract disaster to Inazuma.
"But....how can we help him then?" he asked me with teary eyes.
"We can't".
I wonder how will this affect him, seeing something as foul as this curse and yet not being able to help him. I should have been more careful, but I didn't expect him to be able to even this curse.
"But he's in pain..." he said, the reality of the situation hitting him.
"We can't help him"
He looked at me with teary eyes, but all I could do was shake my head, telling him in a more graphic way that there was nothing we could do.
Then he looked at me, then at the hilichurl, and then at me again. And lastly, he sprinted towards the hilichurl.
"Kenshin, wait!" it may have been the first time I called him by his name, but in my worry, I couldn't care less.
It's not that I couldn't stop him, but my surprise at his sudden act left me unable to react beyond mere words.
Kenshin touched the hilichurl mask and suddenly he screamed in pain grabbing his eyes.
"Kenshin!"
I need to see what's happening to him. The hilichurl's curse is not something I can dabble with and I have no idea of what can it do to Kenshin. I thought the curse could not infect anyone else, but now seeing Kenshin trashing around in front of me while grabbing his eyes tells me the opposite.
"Kenshin, move your hands!" I urged him. I need to see his eyes to see if, with my elemental vision, I can detect what's wrong with him. Is that....blood?
Dammit, I have no time, I need to see his eyes now.
After I pried his eyes open I saw that he now had no pupil. No, it's not that, his eyes had been affected by something and his pupil was 'dissolving' into the rest of his eye causing him a lot of pain.
I look at the hilichurl trying to attack us alarmed by the screams. This is your fault and now you want to make even more trouble? With just a thought, lightning strikes, leaving a pile of ash in the ground where there was a hilichurl just moments ago. I don't care if he's dead or his kind respawn in some place, but now I don't care.
Dammit, I can knock Kenshin unconscious because I don't know if this 'process' will stop midway.
Biting my lips I can only carry Kenshin to the shrine, a safe place where I don't have anything else to worry about.
--------------------------------------
It's been a week since Kenshin has been in a coma and he still has not shown any signs of improvement.
I have been doing everything I can, but in such a complex field like souls, I'm afraid that anything I could try would only harm Kenshin. All I can do now is wait and hope that whatever is happening to him is because of his special ability and not due to the curse.
It has been a hard week, but the worst moment was when both Mio and Yahiko came to the shrine, sweaty after running here and with pale faces, worried about Kenshin's status. I had to lie to them, as nobody could know the cause. All I told them is that he is adapting to his ability, and is a part of his training. Even if I'm a fox, lying to a child's parent about their son's health is not easy for me.
While I feared that they blamed me, they didn't say anything.
But I'm not that naive to think I'm not at fault. I was the one in charge of their son, and it was under my care that he got hurt, and possibly dead. It looks like the fear or respect they had for the 'Divine Miko' was too ingrained in them to say anything to me, but those feelings were there, and I noticed them.
What surprised me was how everyone in the shrine was affected by this. Looks like the kid has been making friends everywhere. The 'how' is beyond me, but it stung that I was probably the most distant person to him in the whole shrine, when I was supposed to be the one mentoring him. Something to think about in the future.
So for now the only thing we can do is to wai-.
"Guuji-sama!. Kenshin is awake!" Miyuki ran into my room without knocking. While in a normal situation, I would have scolded her, now was not the time to care about stupid things like that.
I promptly stood up and started walking toward his room, but Miyuki's uneasy face made me fear the worst.
"Something you need to say?" I asked curtly. We have no time to hesitate, and I need all the information.
"It's just that...." Miyuki looked doubtful about how she could say it.
"We are in a hurry, so tell me directly and I will deal with the consequences" I asked in a calm voice to calm her, but my heart lurched thinking about a possible side effect or a consequence of whatever happened to him.
"His eyes...they have changed" Miyuki said in a quiet voice while looking at the floor.
Well, that's expected. I saw his eyes losing their pupil so it's no wonder, the only thing that matters is how did they end up. Has Kenshin lost his sight?
Do I need to go to Liyue to ask for the adepti there to help him?
While I was musing this, I suddenly realized that I was in front of Kenshin's room.
"Pink woman?" I heard a tired voice come from within the room.
While I'm glad he can discern it's me, the fact that he did it across the door is worrying. If he can now see through the walls I will need him to leave the shrine.
We can't have a man who sees through walls in a mostly female shrine right?
Not wanting to waste more time and preparing for the worst, I opened the door only to find myself looking at 2 purple eyes.
The most beautiful eyes I have ever seen.