The town was deserted.
After last night everyone was too tired to wake up and they hadn't been able to work anyway, so why get up from the bed?
But the few wise people who decided to cut the party short before they got a headache after ingesting too much alcohol didn't leave their houses.
They felt almost afraid, after last night everything felt like a dream, but they thought the same thing. Something was going to happen today.
Kenshin entered the Tenshukaku, not caring about the nervous guards standing in the door, doing absolutely nothing, like they had been doing for the last months.
He entered the meeting room and saw that he was the only one left.
The leaders of the Tenryou and Kanjou Commissions were fuming after getting fooled yesterday, Sara had an anxious expression sensing that something was wrong today, and Ayato was also unsure of what was happening today for everybody to be so scared.
"You are late" Ei scolded Kenshin with her calm look.
"It will be the last time" Kenshin said while going to his seat.
Ei nodded and started talking.
"We need to-"
"Ei, the God of Eternity" Kenshin interrupted her, making Ei lose her calm expression and look at him shocked. "I challenge you to a duel".
"No!" shouted Sara banging the table. "Shut up Kenshin!"
"No, this is my duel with the Shogun, stay back Sara" Kenshin replied without looking at her, his eyes were staring at the Shogun's surprised eyes.
Everyone in the room was stunned, they never thought that Kenshin, who couldn't lift a weapon without getting tired, would challenge the Shogun to a duel.
Ei quickly lost her surprised look, replaced with a serious one.
"Are you talking about one of those competi-"
"No, a duel with weapons. If I win you take back those Decrees forever, if I lose I die" Kenshin replied looking at her, sensing her dismay and worry, but also firm determination.
"Why now?" she asked, but everyone could see that she had already accepted the duel, making Sara start crying and Ayato sweat. They both knew the outcome of this, and it ended with Kenshin being buried. If there was a body left to bury.
"Because we have reached the end of the line" Kensin answered with an unwavering voice.
"But there should still be some food left, and you can bring more" said Ayato, who sensed a long time ago that something was not going right with the food.
"The 'food' you are talking about doesn't exist. The Shrine made that up to reassure the people, there is no more food left. And I can't bring more food, I brought too much from Liyue and even Mondstadt, but they also need to eat. We should have been producing a lot more food than we had, and Liyue and Mondstadt can't sustain us anymore. Last night we consumed our last food" replied Kenshin bitterly. Kenshin could sense Ei's pain hearing him, but she had already accepted the duel.
This was the consequence of letting so many people leave, they were consuming 10 times more of the amount of food they could produce, and Liyue and Mondstadt couldn't support them anymore.
Had Kenshin chose to not let people escape, maybe this situation wouldn't have happened this soon, or maybe it wouldn't have happened at all. No one would ever know.
But that was the consequence of Kenshin's decisions, and now he was paying for them.
"Are you aware of the rules?" she asked standing up, and Sara released a sob, making her feel even more pain. She didn't want things to end like this.
"Just fight, right? But can we do it outside?" said Kenshin pointing upwards. "Even if I can't see, I want to die looking at the sky and not this cold ceiling".
"As you wish" said Ei, feeling torn.
Everyone got up with different faces and expressions but followed the 2.
The leaders of the Kanjou and Tenryou Commissions were uneasy. They hated Kenshin with all their being, but now that he was going to die they didn't feel happy. The fact that the boy they had seen grown during the years in that meeting room was now challenging the unbeatable God of Thunder knowing that he was going to die, and he still didn't waver in issuing his challenge.
Ayato clenched his fists in impotence. At his moment he was transported back to a few months ago when he had to surrender his pride and Vision, but now he was going to watch how his first and only real friend died under the merciless sword of the Raiden Shogun.
But Sara was openly crying. She knew she had fallen in love with Kenshin a few months ago when they started having their talks, it was the moment her 'like' turned into 'love'. And now, after all these years fighting to improve Inazuma, all these months spending his money, effort and health on trying to solve this situation that wasn't even his fault, he was going to die in front of her eyes trying to prove something to the Raiden Shogun.
But she wouldn't cry, she decided. She will look at Kenshin's last moments and learn from him, maybe the time she would need to do something similar wasn't too far away.
"Are you ready?" asked Ei, feeling the cold steel of her naginata in her hands.
"Of course. I was ready for this since I heard those Decrees getting approved" said Kenshin with determination in his voice. He didn't expect things to get this bad, in fact, this was the worst-case scenario, but he needed to deal with what the world gave him. "May I say my goodbyes?"
Ei only nodded, with her weapon ready. She knew this wouldn't be a duel, merely an execution and it brought her no joy. But Kenshin was ready to use everything he had in this duel, and she wouldn't disrespect that determination.
'I am sorry Miko' she inwardly said, lamenting that her only friend was going to lose someone important to her. Again. But this time it would be under her hands.
"Sara" Kenshin said looking at the silently weeping Sara. "I wasn't able to write a book for you, it's only a manuscript called 'The Tengu and the Tanuki', but I didn't have time to publish it. I thought of making you a character of 'Radiant Knight', but I felt you deserved your own book, your own story. Thank you for all these years."
Sara simply nodded still crying, knowing that speaking to Kenshin was redundant, he already knew everything she was feeling.
"Ayato, we know each other well, so I won't say anything. Just say goodbye to everyone for me. Miyuki should know where I left my letters, so please send them when you can" Kenshin said to Ayato, who grimly nodded, and faced Ei.
"Are you not going to say goodbye to Yae? I can wait" Ei offered, knowing that goodbye could help with the feeling of loss.
"I had to leave her unconscious, she will wake up in a few hours" said Kenshin, remembering the desperate feeling Yae was drowning into. "There is nothing else for me to say and nothing for me to regret. I lived my whole life doing what I believed was correct, and now I'm doing the same".
"I will remember your name and the cause you are fighting for. I regret that my decision took you here" said slowly Ei, and a purple space started appearing around her, making everyone scared. "The least I can do for you is fight you personally".
And the space around her disappeared, leaving behind an empty space. Where the Shogun and Kenshin were moments ago, nothing remained.
Sara fell to the ground, desperately crying.
She knew that she wouldn't be able to see Kenshin again.
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"This place seems familiar to me" muttered Kenshin, looking around. "And I can see here, that's at least something good."
"You came here once when you were nothing but a child" in the middle of the space, a woman floating in the hair slowly extended her legs and stood up, her eyes showing the maelstrom of emotions she was feeling right now. "I never thought I would be killing that innocent baby".
"Indeed" said Kenshin with his eyes closed. "Life turns and turns, but never stops".
Ei simply nodded, and took a sword from her chest, making Kenshin's eyes burn in pain. That sword, Mussou Isshin, was purely made out of the Electro Archon's soul, it was an extremely concentrated soul that was burning Kenshin's eyes even through his eyelids.
If Arlecchino's soul was extremely condensed, around 10 times a normal soul, this sword was condensed at least a million times. Morax's soul was big and extremely strong, but only now Kenshin realized how different the soul in front of him was.
Morax' had a body to train and live with, but Ei didn't. She only had a soul, and she had been training every single second for the last 500 years. Kenshin didn't think he would find a stronger soul in the whole Teyvat.
But he didn't have the time to be lost on this, as Ei stood on guard in from of him. A tense silence permeated the air, where nobody moved, nobody spoke, and nobody blinked.
Then in a fraction of a second, Ei disappeared from where she was, and reappeared 10 meters behind Kenshin, sheathing her sword sure of her kill.
"I will repeat it" she said with a pained voice. "I am sorry that my actions took you here, that my decision was the reason for your death".
"I am here because I willed it."
Ei looked in shock at the place where a smoking corpse should have been.
"Your soul is strong" Kenshin said slowly turning back. "But where souls are involved, I am the strongest one".
Ei looked at Kenshin's eyes, and her expression morphed into one of grim determination.
"And right now, we are in the middle of one".
Kenshin's eyes shone with purple flames.