"Ugh" Keith woke up with his head hurting. "Wait, why does my head hurt?"
His sleepiness went away pretty quickly after that, and he stood up to look at the place he was now in.
The last thing he remembered was Kafka's pink eyes looking at him with murder in them, so he was probably tied to the ceiling and would be savagely tortured, but looking around, he didn't find himself in a cheap-looking basement with all sorts of torture instruments.
He was in a barren place, a wide expanse of brown as the dried grass and naked soul greeted his eyes.
No wind, normal temperature, no clouds, and a sky without a single light that told him it was night.
Those were the only things he was able to see.
But how was he able to see if there was no light?
A strange occurrence Keith didn't know the answer to. But suddenly, he realized something, he had his eyes closed.
He opened them, but it didn't make a difference.
Opting to look around, he let out a gasp of surprise as there was a huge trunk behind him.
Like the grass all around him, it was dried up, but the sheer size made him realize that this huge tree should have been majestic in the past. Dried branches greeted his eyes, making him sigh regretfully, as he knew he wouldn't be able to see something amazing.
But there was something else here, something so small he hadn't seen it at first.
A few dried fruits hung from the lower branches, but he only looked briefly at them, losing interest. Not that the fruits were boring, but there was one dimly shining.
"What is this?" Keith wondered aloud.
He had no memories of the past before Himeko rescued him, but he had been travelling with her for months, and he had seen his own share of vegetables and fruits.
But he had never seen a fruit that seemed to be made of pure 'gas'.
It had a dark purple colour, and it was shining with a tremulous purple light, and he felt that if he blew at it, it would forever disappear.
And...he abhorred the idea.
Something so beautiful shouldn't disappear.
Not to mention the affection this fruit seemed to spark within him.
"Am I attracted to fruits?" he wondered, feeling how strange it was to feel like this after seeing what seemed to be a single fruit. "Hmm?"
He touched his face, and felt surprised that he was able to feel.
Not the 'touching-like feeling' he got as feedback from his puppet body, but feeling the warmth of his skin.
'So this is a dream' he thought, thinking that it was the only possibility.
But his reason for being surprised changed pretty quickly, as he felt something wet on his hand.
"Am I...crying?" Keith asked himself, touching his cheek again only to realize that indeed, tears were sliding down his cheeks. "This place is too weird."
Not only the eerie view of dead plants everywhere, but his own emotions were a mess after coming here.
The initial feeling of desolation he felt looking at the tree, the burst of tenderness looking at the weird floating purple thing, and now he was crying for no reason.
"ELIO, GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Keith screamed, thinking that surely the being who could spy on Fate would be strong enough to get him out of his own dream. "I KNOW YOUR WEIRD PEEKING GOT ME IN HERE, SO TAKE ME OUT!"
But Elio didn't answer.
Instead, Keith started feeling drowsy again.
"What the hell, can you sleep in a dream?" he wondered, before losing consciousness.
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Just after Keith disappeared from what he thought was a dream, another person appeared.
A girl with neck-length purple hair, who had eaten too many dangos and fell asleep with a hurting belly, looked around in surprise and maybe a bit of fear.
Elea looked around at the fantastical landscape, but she felt drowsy immediately after.
.
.
.
"Yawn, that was a weird dream" Elea woke up and stretched, feeling rested after a night of peaceful sleep.
Only a faint recollection of the dream remained, but Elea knew it would disappear in at most an hour.
Not that she minded, that weird dream had been a bit spooky.
Remembering that she had training today, Elea smiled with an excited expression, and promptly left her comfy bed, like a kid waking up for her birthday, and did her morning ablutions.
"Look at who is excited about her training" laughed Yae, seeing Elea come into the main room of the Tenshukaku with energetic steps and a big smile. "You usually complain a lot after waking up."
"What are you doing here?" inquired Elea with a suspicious glance.
"Needed to talk with your mother" smiled Yae, amused by Elea's attitude. "But seeing that you are going to train, maybe I should come later?"
"Hmmm" Elea hummed in thought while a big battle was happening inside of her.
She wanted to train, and now.
But she knew that even if she talked with the pink-haired woman comfortably and usually joked with her, she was a very important person.
"Hahh, just try to end quickly okay?" Elea said with a dispirited expression, knowing that Yae's conversation was probably more important than her training.
"Of course" Yae smiled, and patted Elea's head, making the young girl pout. "But your mother is busy right now, why don't you tell me about your training?"
Elea nodded excitedly, forgetting her reluctance to give up her turn at training.
"Mom is now teaching me the correct stances to hold the sword" Elea said with a hyped-up expression.
"Is she pushing you too much?" asked Yae, sitting on one mat made for that purpose, and patting the one next to her to invite Elea to do the said.
"Hmmm, a bit" Elea sat next to Yae, and replied after thinking for a bit. "She is very stern, but she never asks me more than what I can do."
"Do you like training?" asked Yae, thinking about the stark differences between father and daughter, as Kenshin didn't like exercising. He wasn't opposed to it, but he was far for being someone who would go out of his way to train.
"Of course!" Elea shouted with a happy expression. "I like moving my body a lot, and I want to fight like mom."
"That's going to be hard" warned Yae, who knew that even if Elea was Ei's daughter, the former Shogun had an advantage Elea would never be able to overcome.
"Because she is a Goddess?" asked Elea, looking a bit down.
"Yes" Yae nodded. "I don't want you to lose your motivation, but you need to be aware that she is in another league. Even between Gods, she was one of the strongest ones, and judging by her relentless training, she has only grown stronger."
"Is Mom that amazing?" asked Elea with a shocked face. "Even if she makes these weird faces eating dangos?"
"Yes, she is" revealed Yae with an amused laugh, knowing that dangos were Ei's weakness.
"That's amazing!" shouted Elea, feeling that her usual stern mother was way stronger than she thought. "Is she stronger than Uncle Rex?"
"Elea" Yae chastised the girl, making her cover her mouth with her hand. "He is called Zhongli now, you can't be careless about this. He told you his name out of respect for you and your father, but you absolutely can't spill it out like this, he would be in trouble if someone heard you."
"Sorry" Elea apologized, but then she sported a confused expression. "But why would he be in trouble? He is very strong right?"
"He doesn't want to be known as the God of Contracts anymore, he wants to enjoy his life with his family" explained Yae, knowing that Elea was still a child to the finest details eluded her understanding.
"But Mom is a God too, and no one seems to care" said Elea, looking at Yae's pink eyes with incomprehension.
"Inazuma is different from Liyue, and he would have a lot of people in front of his house to ask him for money" Yae knew that it wouldn't end there, as over the years Morax had turned into a source of protection and money for the people in Liyue, and his usual modus operandi of appearing only once a year cemented the idea of being a superior existence in the people of Liyue's mind.
While Ei, despite being reclusive, was still living in Inazuma and everyone knew about it, so her presence was way more natural than Rex Lapis'.
"Like the leeches Uncle Ayato told me about?" asked Elea, nodding in understanding.
"Yes" Yae didn't know what leeches had Ayato been talking about, but the people in Liyue would act like ones, at least the vast majority.
"So, who is stronger? My Mom, or Uncle Zhongli?" asked Elea with shining eyes.
"I have no idea" confessed Yae. "Your Mom is very strong, but so is Zhongli. I don't think they had seriously fought even once, so probably even they don't know."
"Oh" said a dispirited Elea, who wanted to hear her mother was the strongest.
"But there is someone who fought them both, and won" said Yae with a teasing smile, making Elea look at her with her mouth wide open.
"Who is it?!" asked a shocked Elea, not knowing anyone who could win against her mother.
"Your father" said Yae with a smile seeing Elea froze in her place.
"My father beat Mom?" asked a disbelieving Elea. "Wasn't he human?"
"He was" Yae nodded, watching Elea's expression turn into one of amazement. "But he wasn't a normal human. He had a very special ability, and your own probably comes from him."
"You mean that I can sense other people's feelings because of him?" asked Elea, who despite knowing that his father had been a special person had never heard anything more in detail.
"Yes" revealed Yae with a small nod. "His ability was way stronger, but I can't tell you about that yet."
"Why?" asked Elea with an eager expression.
"His ability was too strong, and you can get in trouble if you blurt it" explained Yae.
"I promise I won't-"
"You said Zhongli's name a mere minute ago" reminded Yae with a raised eyebrow, making Elea swallow her words. "Don't worry, when you grow older you will need to know about it."
"Okay" Elea sighed in resignation, but thinking of something she looked again at Yae with excitement on her face. "Does it mean I can win against Mom too? I have my father's ability after all."
"No" Yae immediately shut down Elea's hopes. "I already told you, I don't want to dampen your enthusiasm, but I also don't want to lie to you. Your father's ability was extremely strong, but he only won against your mother due to some very special and specific conditions, coupled with luck."
"So mom is still the strongest" Elea nodded with a satisfied expression.
She had a good opinion of her father as everyone around her told him how amazing he was, and she LOVED the Radiant Knight, but her mother was still in the first place.
Her father would come in....maybe 5th place, as Yae, Sara and Jean also came before him.
Maybe 6th, Ken was her best friend.
Kenshin would have probably screamed at the heavens for such a low position on her daughter's scale.
"But how did my father win against Re-Zhongli?" asked Elea, making Yae hide a pang of sorrow realizing that she probably won't ever hear Elea refer to Kenshin as 'Dad'. "Why are you sad?"
"I just remembered something" said Yae with a smile trying to drive those thoughts away. "He won against Zhongli using his favourite tactic."
"What is it?" asked Elea, who still had the hope of being able to beat her mother one day. Maybe she could train her ability to the degree of being comparable to that of her father.
"He cheated" replied Yae with a smirk seeing Elea's expression freeze.
"My father was a cheater?" asked Elea with a disgusted expression.
"Yes, and no" Yae replied with a small laugh. "But you are only asking about one meaning I guess."
"Is there more than one meaning to cheat?" asked a disgruntled Elea, not wanting to think of her father as a person who would cheat.
"For now, yes" said Yae with a smile. "But you are also a cheater."
"I'm not a cheater!" shouted an angry Elea.
"Didn't you try to fool your mother with dangos to avoid cleaning your room?" asked Yae with a pointed look.
"Ugh" Elea grimaced, not expecting her masterful plan to be discovered by this cunning woman. "That doesn't count."
"Your father would be proud of you for thinking of it" revealed Yae with a nod. "His battle against Zhongli was the same. He used the loose rules to his advantage, and allied with Azdaha to beat the former Archon."
"That enormous dragon?!" asked Elea, widening her arms as if to express how big she found Azdaha to be.
She had gone to Liyue a few months ago, and the colossal stone dragon had wanted to meet her so her mother took her to his presence.
And to say she was shocked was an understatement.
"Yes, he allied with Azdaha" explained Yae. "Do you still think that's cheating?"
"hmm...yes" confessed Elea, who knew the sanctity of a duel.
"Then I won't help you the next time you want my help to convince your mother to not have protocol lessons" smirked Yae.
"No, please!" shouted Elea with a panicked expression. "Those lessons are dreadful!"
Yae laughed, knowing that those lessons were nothing else than an introduction to what she would learn in a few years, but the mere fact of being still made Elea restless, so sitting for an hour listening to the most basic things about history or the fundamentals of protocols made Elea suffer a lot.
"You still are going to have them" a calm voice with a tinge of amusement reached them and they looked towards the opening door. "With Miko's help or not."
"Mom!" Elea shouted happily, and forgetting about Yae she quickly ran to hug Makoto. "Can you talk with Yae quickly so we can train faster?"
"Maybe, if you promise to listen with attention during the lesson, we can train now" smiled Makoto, looking at the girl hugging her legs.
"But..." Elea looked in doubt at Yae, knowing that if Yae needed to talk with her mother it would probably be something important.
"If your mother is offering, just take it" said Yae with a nod, but she smirked after. "But you still need to promise to pay attention."
"Ugh" Elea grimaced, knowing that the next lesson would be extra boring. But her desire to train with her mother finally won the internal struggle. "I promise..."
"Good then" Makoto smiled, and the space around her started breaking down, as Ei was also listening.
"I'm going!" Elea happily shouted, being used to this scene after entering the mystical space hundreds of times by this point.
Elea soon disappeared, leaving Makoto and Yae alone to talk.
"Is something important happening?" asked Makoto in worry after inviting Yae to the main room and sitting down after the people she had been in a meeting with left with a respectful bow.
"No, it's just a routine report" said Yae, making Makoto sigh. "You can't blame me, she looks so cute when I tease her."
Makoto sighed, thinking that Yae's mischievous nature hadn't changed since she had been a child.
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"Mom!" Elea shouted, hugging Ei's legs.
"Are you ready for the training?" asked a softly smiling Ei.
"Yes!" Elea nodded excitedly, but wore a confused expression. "But if you are here...who was the one outside?"
Makoto and Ei, seeing that Elea called them Mom all the same, opted to let Elea keep calling them that.
Their situation was quite peculiar, and Elea probably wouldn't understand the intricacies of it, so they decided to explain everything to her when she was older.
"Also me" replied Ei, giving Elea a wooden sword she kept here to train her while donning a serious expression and making Elea forget about everything not related to training. "Now, focus. You wanted me to train you, but you also promised to take it seriously."
"Of course!" Elea loudly said, trying to show her determination with a concentrated expression.
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"haa....haa..." Elea was lying on the ground panting after an hour of rigorous training.
"You did it well" Ei complimented her daughter who was trying to catch her breath. "You are quite talented in this, but you will need to train a lot if you want to be strong."
Of course, Ei's strength was compared to everything that lived in this world, so if Elea got as 'strong' as Ei thought she could be, it meant that no human, with Vision or not, would stand a chance.
Even if Elea lacked the raw power of a God and didn't have Kenshin's ability to manipulate souls, she was still Ei's daughter and that gave her an edge over the rest.
Not to mention that Ei's training was probably one of the best training one could have.
"Will I.....be able to...beat you?" asked Elea between pants.
"No" replied curtly Ei, making Elea almost cry. "But there is no need to feel sad about it, almost no one can. And I will always be there to protect you and teach you, so there is no need for you to be that strong."
Elea certainly felt a bit better hearing that, but it still stung.
"But my fath-" Elea felt a bit weird saying 'my father' in front of her mother. "But Dad was able to beat you."
Ei thanked that Elea was too tired to look at her, so her deep sadness went unnoticed by her perceptive daughter.
After all, this was the first time Elea called Kenshin 'dad'.
"He did" Ei admitted, trying to drive those thoughts away. "But he had the advantage here."
"Yae told me he was a cheater" confessed Elea, who felt that this was a chance for her to take some revenge on the cunning pink-haired woman.
It had worked on her 5th birthday, maybe it would work again.
"He was no cheater" Ei sighed, knowing that Yae was trying to get a rise out of her daughter. "He was very good at identifying and exploiting holes in the rules, but I will tell you this. Even if he 'cheated' as you call it, not once he did do so to make people sad. He always strived to make people happy, and used all his advantages to that end. My case was the same."
"..." Elea didn't expect that her attempt at taking a shot at Yae would end up revealing this. "Will I at least be as strong as him?"
Elea knew her father's presence in her mother and her family's life was very big, and felt that if she proved to be equal to her father in some way, she would be able to help all the people who were still sad about him.
"You are a lot stronger than him than he was at your age" revealed Ei, making Elea open her eyes wide in surprise.
"I am?" Elea asked herself.
She had been hearing how strong her father was, so she didn't expect to be even stronger than him.
Didn't this mean that if she kept training and growing stronger, she would always be ahead of her father at her age?
Ei saw all the emotions in her daughter's face, before Elea wore a face of pure determination.
She knew that face, it was the same one she had seen countless times, when people set a new goal for themselves, so Ei could guess her daughter's new goal, and it made her wryly smile.
She was still not the most vocal person and she didn't want to discourage her daughter, but she knew that it was impossible for Elea to be stronger than Kenshin.
Her now dead partner's growth in combat strength had been a horizontal line, before it spiked to reach a height even taller than hers in a single second, the second he was able to bring his Plane forward.
But maybe letting Elea have this goal wasn't a bad thing.
When her daughter turned a bit older she would learn more about her father and the world she lived in, and by that time she would understand that she didn't need to be stronger than her father.
Until then, having a goal would be a positive thing.