I woke up, confused about the lack of light, but remembered that I was blind now.
'It's going to take a while to be used to this' I commented, expecting Guizhong's answer.
I got a bit anxious when I didn't receive an answer, but realized that I didn't need to.
Guizhong was not in the hade slip anymore, she now had a body.
"Guizhong, are you there?" I asked aloud.
"Yes, what do you need?" I heard a soft voice answer me.
Dammit, my brain may have been affected too. I could have just looked around, I could see her soul.
"What do you think we should do now? I know you want to get to Liyue, but I need to stay here for a while. I need to start the JRK, and Yanfei must have been waiting for a few days now" I asked her.
She always had an opinion, and I valued it, but now we didn't need to be together at all times, she could go to Liyue while I worked here.
"Don't be stupid. I will stay with you until you are ready to leave, you still need to ask Morax for forgiveness after all" she teased me with what I could sense was amusement.
"Oh, that's true. He is not going to like it" I said nervously.
The Boss had already accepted his past and his losses. My appearance with Guizhong was going to open some wounds, and that's what I knew for sure.
He knew more of this world than me, obviously. So he might know what was that 'thing' that left me without sight just by appearing in from of me.
I don't expect anybody to heal my eyes. Now that I think about it, I don't even think my eyes are damaged, after all, I can still see souls even from a very big distance. Going even further, I can understand souls now, something I couldn't do before.
"Guizhong, are my eyes different? I saw them shine with more intensity the more my ability grew, so I don't know if they are any different now" I asked an important question. My ability had 'evolved' somehow, so if my power resided in my eyes, they should be different now.
"Yes, they did" Guizhong confirmed my suspicions. I am still not used to hearing her voice with my ears. "They are still bright purple, but there are specks of golden and white swirling within them. They are beautiful eyes".
"Of course they are!. They are my charming point after all" I exclaimed. I knew I was handsome, but what made me rise above the masses were my eyes. Ayato was more handsome than me, but my eyes let me catch the girls' attention more than him. "Oh no"
"What happened?" asked a worried Guizhong.
"You have now a body right?"
"You lost your sight for that, I expected you to know it" she wryly said.
"Then you are not with me"
"Again, yes"
"Which means I can now fantasize about everything I want"
"Why are you thinking about that now!?".
"But then, I lost my sight"
"Again, yes, I expected you to know it by now".
"Then how am I going to get fap material?"
"What the hell Kenshin"
"Think about it!. I'm in my hormonal years, but I have no way of getting exciting content. Unless..."
"No Kenshin, I'm not going to describe to you those dirty magazines!"
"You owe me at least that"
"No, I don't!. I would give up my body before doing that!"
Before I could use my powers of persuasion, a knock on the door interrupted us.
"Excuse me sir, but there is a woman with antler horns downside asking for the owner of the JRK, whatever that is. Should I tell her your room?" the receptionist told me.
"No, tell her to go to the Knights of Favonius headquarters and ask for Jean, I will go soon". Yanfei didn't know the owner was me or she wouldn't have come here. I was going to surprise her. "And thank you".
"No problem sir" then he left to carry out my request.
"I don't know how you still have the energy to prank people" Guizhong muttered.
"Why shouldn't I?. I did what I wanted, and got what I wanted. I'm not regretting this Guizhong, while it's a tragedy for me to lose my sight, the fact that you recovered your body leaves me unable to be sad. Of course, I'm affected by this and I feel depressed about certain things, but I don't lament it".
"Let's go" she said, but I knew she was tearing up a bit.
"If you are that grateful, how about-"
"No, I'm not describing you pornographic material!"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We finally arrived at the room where Yanfei, Jean, and Varka were.
My new power is amazing, I could see their souls to the smallest detail. I could now see how Yanfei's soul was a very homogeneous mix of 2 types of souls.
Speaking of which, Guizhong's soul was awesome. It wasn't as mighty as the Boss', but it dwarfed Yae's. Probably Yae was stronger than her, she knew a lot of sparky shit, but Guizhong's soul was extremely more intense.
A strong soul wasn't synonymous with power. To a certain degree, Vision bearers were stronger souls materialized and a stronger 'signal' being sent to wherever place it was sent to, and they could show more powerful abilities.
But I realized that Visions were only a crutch, the only way humans had to show 'inhuman' powers.
But there had to be a caveat in it somewhere, I didn't believe someone was granting humans powers for free.
And I didn't like that. For example, Sara or Jean could be losing something in return for this power, and I didn't know what. They were not 'selling their souls for power', I would have noticed that, but the world was too big for me to understand everything. And this whole Vision thing seemed to hold a lot of secrets.
"Kenshin, are you okay?. You have been standing there for a while" I sensed Guizhong's worry.
"Guizhong, you can use elemental power right?" I searched for confirmation.
Visions were a vessel for humans to store a small part of their souls, that's why when someone's Vision got stolen or lost, they quickly got depressed. The soul shard stored in the Vision was the one where all aspirations, dreams, and desires were. Imagine how tragic it is to lose that.
It would be a miracle if you didn't kill yourself.
"Yes, I can" Guizhong nodded. "But I'm not strong, I'm the Goddess of Dust, and there is not much I can do. That's why I allied with Morax back then".
"You can't turn people into dust?" that would be awesome.
"Of course not" what a disappointment.
"You only can clean a house then".
"I don't like the connotations in that".
"Anyway, let's enter".
I opened the door and entered confidently.
"You!" I saw Yanfei's soul tremble in shock and anxiety. "What are you doing here!".
"Of course, start a business. That's why you are here after all" I replied with a smirk.
"You are the owner of the JRK?" asked a nervous Yanfei.
"Yes".
"I'm leaving!" she said and tried to leave, but Jean stopped her with a frown.
"I don't know how or why do you know each other, but you accepted our commission so you are not going to leave now. And be respectful to Kenshin". Oohh, my Radiant Knight is defending me!
But I don't like it. I'm not some invalid-. Well, I am now, but I don't need anyone to protect me, at least not more than what they did before. Even a hilichurl can beat me. Oh, I need to look at them now, maybe I can see something new.
"Respect him?!. Do you know how much trouble he caused a few years ago?!" Yanfei replied to the stern Jean.
"I don't care. He is a great person who is doing all this to help us, it can't have been that bad" she tried defending me again, but it was my turn to squirm in my place beside the door. It was that bad.
"He sent a revered Adeptus whose animal form was a crane recipe for cooking birds daily for a month because he was spiteful she rejected him!".
Jean looked at me in surprise, but I was able to keep my face straight.
"He told me, a lawyer, that rules were useless. And when I tried to teach him a lesson, the millennial and only Yaksha appeared, telling him that our god, Rex Lapis was busy and couldn't come! Do you know how I felt!"
I could sense Jean look at me with a perplexed but equally accusing face. My facade broke down a bit, but it held up.
"And he started a rebellion!. A lot of businesses left Liyue to relocate just outside the city to avoid paying taxes! We needed 4 years to restore the Harbor to its normal state. Even Rex Lapis had to intervene, and only after his 4th appearance did people calm down, even he was ignored the first 3 times. Do you know how revered he is in Liyue? Even he was ignored, so there was no way we could have solved that problem!" she said, extremely agitated.
I didn't know that it escalated that much. Even the Boss had to make an appearance, 4 times at that.
"He could have destroyed the Harbor just for fun, and do you know the origin of it? I and other 2 very important people, one of whom is Ningguang, the leader of the Qixing were face-slapped in public! We are still being called God's Touched, even after 7 years!!".
My facade crumbled, and Jean looked at me with a scandalized face.
"In my defense, if a 5-year-old child could make your system crumble, it was not that good from the start" I defended myself weakly.
"Hahaha, as he said" Varka started laughing.
"Look the Grandmaster agrees with me" I quickly jumped at the opportunity. "I haven't caused trouble here, I'm an Honorary Knight of Favonius now for my great merit!".
"You are lying" said a disbelieving Yanfei. "Somebody trusts you in this world?".
"Hey, that's too much" said Guizhong with an angry face. "He helped me a lot, so please retract that statement"
"S-Sorry" Yanfei looked stunned at being scolded all of a sudden. She lost her cool remembering the past experiences Kenshin had made her live through. "Who might you be?"
"You don't need to know, we will go to Liyue soon" I said, not wanting to say anything that could reveal Guizhong's identity. "And look at this" I showed her my badge, the one that symbolized that I worked directly under the Shogun.
"Now you have to be lying" said a shocked Yanfei. "I know how much of a psycho the Gof of Eternity is, she hates 'uniqueness' and trouble. And you are telling me YOU are her trusted guy?".
"I don't know anymore" I shrugged. "I resigned from my job and left Inazuma. It's too boring there. Anyway, we are here to work, let's finish this" I tried to end this farce. The sooner I finish this the sooner Guizhong can leave for Liyue.
"Okay" said a resigned Yanfei. "Then sit so we can end this quickly. Also please, go to Inazuma directly, don't stay in Liyue".
"If I could, I would" I said with a bitter expression. I don't want to face an angry dragon.
I remembered the layout of the room, so I quickly reached my chair with no problems.
"OUCH!".
Or not.
"Who the hell moved this thing?!" I hit my knee on a small table that was in the middle of the room.
"We are cleaning, so how could we not change it?" said Varka amusedly.
"What are you planning now?" Yanfei asked suspiciously.
"If only I did that on purpose..." I grumbled.
I am not hiding my blindness, but I don't want pity from her. It would make pranking her lose it's attractive.
Guizhong stepped forward and helped me find the chair.
"Now that I think about it, why didn't you tell me about this?" I asked her with a frown.
"Karma" she succinctly replied.
"What's wrong with you?" asked Yanfei, sensing that something was off.
"I'm blind now".
"Karma" said Yanfei.