Catching Yae in the air, I asked her what was going on.
-"I saw what you did yesterday! Thank you!"
-"I'm a little lost."
-"Yup, calm down, you pink vixen."
-"Oh my. I apologize, Loki. I couldn't see you from the entrance. The table must have covered you."
-"You two Foxes are truly worth each other. Why did you come here?"
-"That performance that Yue did. Recording of it started circulating, and it fell into my hands just now."
-"You mean that not only the emperor was playing on the street, but somebody also recorded him? Yue..."
-"Loki, first look at it."
Yae passed the memory stone to Loki, who started watching the recording. Minutes later, when it ended, Loki looked at me and spoke with gritted teeth.
-"You... I now see that this is not bad for your reputation, but never do such a stunt again."
-"Can't promise it."
-"Loki, let him act as he pleases. My ears in the city heard only positive opinions of what happened yesterday. Especially in the circle of artists that were discussing the song he played."
-"For you, who focuses on that, it was a godsend. But to me, who tries to uphold the image of an empire, it can't repeat."
-"His action didn't diminish the respect people have for him, Loki. More so, because few know Yue's history, that story showed people his motivation."
-"That story wasn't meant to do that, though. This song was something I created together with Shen Meng, and I used illusion just to show some inspiration we used for it.
-"It removed some mystery from him, huh?"
-"Also, aren't there goods on streets among mortals? It's good for him to show that he isn't isolated from his subjects."
-"OK, OK, I get it. You can stop defending him. What do you plan to do with that recording?"
-"Make it public. Showing that he appreciates art will help my job. Also, Yue, would you mind if the Festival of Hope is turned into one of art?"
-"Festival of art? I think it's a good idea. Elysia would also be happy to hear Eden sing on 'her' Festival."
-"Perfect!"
-"Sigh. I'm leaving then."
-"Thanks for your work, Loki."
-"Then don't give me more of it! Also, in Orario, Monster Feria will take place soon. You are invited as one of the VIPs, wanna come?"
-"Hmm... I'll be there."
-"I'll pass that to Ganesha."
After Loki left, only Yae and I were left in the office.
-"So what do you plan to do now?"
-"I have nothing planned."
-"So how about going with me to Inazuma? I wanted to check on the Baal."
-"Let's go."
We walked together into the Grand Narukami Shrine. All shrine maidens that we passed saluted us respectfully, while a few guests that were here also bowed and made way for us.
I approached the Sacred Sakura and touched its trunk. Probing its soul, I detected the soul of Ei's sister Makoto. It was only half of the whole, but under the care of Yae and other shrine maidens, it recovered to the point of not being at risk of disappearing.
I also found a hidden realm in the roots of the Sacred Sakura. Feeling Ei's aura inside, I decided to go there and talk with her. Taking Yae with me, we entered inside.
-"Do you recognize this place, Yae?"
-"This... This must be Oneiric Euthymia, a version of Euthymia that belonged to Makoto."
We walked toward Ei, who was praying. We quietly waited for her to end, and only after she rose to her feet did we speak.
-"Haven't seen you in a while, Ei."
-"Yue, Yae? How can you be here?"
-"I found this place while looking at Makoto's soul."
-"Sister's? I see."
-"Ei, can you give me your Musou Isshin for a second?"
-"I don't mind."
-"Hmm? Why do you want that sword, Yue?"
-"I felt something from that blade when I was looking inside, and I want to confirm something."
I took Ei's sword and probed its soul like I did the tree before. Inside, I found a surprising number of souls. Ei's soul was bound to the sword, but it was created from other part of Makoto's soul as well as keeping remnants of three others.
-"I must say, your sister wasn't pursuing eternity for nothing."
-"Did something happen?"
-"I probably can revive your sister now, but I might need to destroy this sword."
-"Do it."
Yae also looked at me seriously, hearing what I had said.
Isolating three remnants of souls, I extracted and preserved them. Next, I sat down and connected myself to this place, the Tree growing behind me and rooting deep into the ground.
Placing the sword on my knees, I started reconnecting two parts of the soul of Makoto. This process required precision, as whatever divided her soul wasn't meant for it to be undone.
Slowly stitching threads of Karma and Fate together, I succeded in restoring over 80% of the soul. The remaining parts needed to be restored, so I used Authority of Origin and started the healing process. For over ten hours, I focused on the process, taking great care at every step of the process.
When the sun started setting outside, I finally succeded in mending Makoto's soul. To begin the revival, I created a body for her with Path of Abundance and started to place the soul inside.
Now, I needed to recreate her spirit. This was not as hard to do as with the soul but required some improvising. My avatar in Hold used Matrix of Timeless Divinity to perform Divination and record Makoto's life in memory stone.
With that memory stone as a base, I created a pseudo-spirit using the Authority of Sentience. Having all the puzzle pieces in place, I used a combination of multiple Paths and Authorities to combine body, spirit, and soul. When all was complete, Makoto's eyes started fluttering.
-"Where?"
-"Listen to me right now. You are still injured and have to be calm. Do not focus on any gaps in memory, nor try to remember them right now. Your spirit is in a fragile state, so you have to be careful not to collapse it."
-"You are?"
-"Somebody that healed you. Your sister and Yae are here, they will slowly explain everything."
-"I see."
-"Ei, Yae, she right now, may display cognitive dissonance about herself and her past. You have to make her grounded in who she is and what she did in the past. But! Do not, under any circumstances, make her relive heavily emotional moments. Do you understand?"
-"Yes."
Ei nodded.
-"I'll stay here and focus on stabilizing her with Authority of Sentience. Makoto, for now, do not resist and focus on talking with your sister."
Three girls sat down at the table that I created with Authority of Reason and started talking. At first, they were speaking about some nonimportant subjects, but they slowly turned to Inazuma matter.
My avatar stayed and looked over the progress of Makoto's pseudo-spirit while my other avatar in Hold was getting busy with other matters. During the time when I focused on helping in Inzauma, a woman rescued in Chaos woke up.
As I could now allow myself to be distracted, I went to the quarantine room with Sakura as my escort, where Kal'tsit was performing the last tests with the woman. I waited outside while reading the results of the examinations performed before.
-"You are finally here."
-"Sorry for that, I had to do something."
-"Nevermind. Kai'Sa, the woman inside, is well. No anomaly nor danger was detected. In my opinion, she can leave the quarantine."
-"Good. Let me talk to her, and we will see what to do after that."
-"Ok. Follow me."
-"Sakura, I know that you have to be strict, but do not try to kill if you can."
-"I'll do everything to keep you safe."
-"I know that."
We three walked into the room, where Kai'Sa was sitting on the bed.
-"Kal'tsit? Who is this?"
-"This is Yue, the person who brought you here. Next to him is Sakura, a Guard. Please don't do anything to make her attack."
-"I won't, you saved me after all."
-"I'll call you Kai'Sa. Can you tell me about you?"
-"I don't mind. I'm someone who hunts in the Void. I was fighting with one of the Voidborn, and something happened, resulting in me losing consciousness."
-"Void... Well, let me explain what had happened. You were thrown outside the world you live in into the Chaos. That carapace saved you for long enough for us to help you."
-"Chaos? Outside the world? Are you saying that this is not Runeterra?"
-"No, you are not on the Runeterra anymore."
-"Seriously?"
I throw her a memory crystal showing how we rescued her.
-"Focus on that stone. It stores images of the rescue."
She moment later successfully used it. Understanding the truth of the matter, she was shocked.
-"Can you take me back to my world?"
-"Yes, but it'll take some time. Chaos does not possess time and space like a world would, so navigating it requires some preparations."
-"I see. I mean, I don't understand that Chaos time-space thing, but I'll have to just wait for some time."
-"Yes, we will need up to a month to be safe in the travel."
-"Month? Will I have to stay here all the time?"
-"No, I'll remove you from the quarantine, but I'll have to designate a caretaker slash guard for you, and your powers will be restricted."
-"Hmm... Is it even possible to restrict my power?"
I nodded and used the Authority of Corruption to partly remove her carapace.
-"I'll have someone to create a branchlet that restricts that energy you possess."
-"OK. Can you tell me something about this world, how I should behave and things like that?"
-"I'll ask Fuxi to explain those later. For now, I'll ask you to write all general knowledge information about your world. Fuxi will be here in a short while."
-"I'll write it for you. Can you even read letters from my world?"
-"Don't worry, most members of Hold learned soul language through [Scroll of Mastery], so we can understand and speak with you."
-"Handy thing. Hold must be your organization, right?"
-"Yes. Don't worry, everything will be explained to you. Kal'tsit, please stay here until Fuxi comes. I'll excuse myself."
I stood up and walked out of the room with Sakura, and we started walking back to the Palace.
-"Your opinion on Kai'Sa?"
-"She is wild and lacks control over her power and aura. Luckily she is not aggressive and can understand her situation."
-"It would seem that Lin or Rita will have their first task with her."
-"I'll inform Jingliu and Keqing about what happened here."
-"Thank you, Sakura."
-"I'm happy to be of use, My Lord."
The next morning, I received information that Lin agreed to watch over Kai'Sa. I also received the document that contained information about Runeterra. Sadly, as Kai'Sa was not involved with major powers, everything written was just a surface look at the complex world.
-"Ei."
-"Yes?"
-"Sigh. Yae, I'm sorry you had to be a nanny for her. Yue, I'm eternally thankful for you saving Inazuma from my sister."
-"Oh, my. Finally, Ei will get the talking to she deserves."
-"No need to thank me."
-"There is a need to thank you. Ei, explain to me your thinking."
-"I just wanted for nothing to change again. For peace to continue."
-"Sigh, I now regret not forcing you to learn all those things in the past and allowing you to become a shadow."
-"..."
-"Well, leave the family talk for later. Makoto, there should be no sequelae after the revival, but for the next month or so, please try to remain calm all the time and come to me for checks every two or three days."
-"I'll do so."
-"Allow me to take care of Makoto for a while."
-"Good. Just give Kokomi the info she needs to cover for you. I'll be returning to my other tasks now. Take care."
-"I'll walk you back to the shrine."
-"Walk me back? Well, why not?"
I took Yae outside, leaving Makoto and Ei, that was sitting in dogeza. Arriving outside, it was already late at night, and no one was left in the shrine but us. I was about to bid my farewell, but Yae came to me and kissed me forcefully.
-"Thank you for bringing her back."
-"I promised you that I will do it."
-"I know. And now I want to reward you for keeping that promise."
-"Is that so?"
-"Yes, I have some good sake here."
-"Only sake?"
-"Everything in order."
Only after the sun was high in the sky did Yae leave the bedroom. She agreed to move her stuff to the Inner Palace at a later date, while now she went to Makoto.
After shaking the pink fur of my while tails, I also left the shrine and went to seek Aether and ask him about what his sister decided on the subject of Abyss. I was able to locate him using Divination and teleported nearby.
I also took Guard from Hold, as I promised to always have someone accompany me outside. This time, it was Ling who was picked.
-"At last, we have time to ourselves."
-"Sorry for neglecting you all."
-"Nah, I understand that you are busy. So, what are we doing here today?"
-"Looking for Aether."
-"Looking for a guy?"
-"You may say so. He is nearby, let's go."
We entered a building that looked like a theatre. Inside, a mass of people was sitting, and on the scene, there was aether with some of his new companions.
-"Hmm, Ling, how long do you think this peace will last?"
-"You mean troubles are coming?"
-"Aether can be considered Nameless, and the situation is clearly wrong."
-"He is Nameless? Five minutes max."
Aether and a man who was the human form of a dragon discussed something, and for a while, calm continued. But of course, suddenly, space started breaking in front of a stage, and soon, a giant whale emerged from the created rift.
Panic ensued as people started running toward the exit. The whale attacked the scene but was blocked only to change the target to us, who stood between it and the running crowd. Ling waved her hand and solidified space before us, trapping the whale in place.
-"Three minutes and twenty-seven seconds."
-"Tsk, you win."
-"I'll have one of your treasured Wines."
-"Only if we drink it together."
-"I can agree to this compromise."
-"Yue?"
-"Hello, Aether. I see that you can't leave troubles alone and have to follow them."
-"It's them following us!"
-"You sure, Paimon?"
-"Yes!"
-"What to do with that thing?"-Ling asked.
-"How about asking that person lurking in rift?"
As if responding to my words, a person jumped from the rift and landed on the whale.
-"Childe?"
-"Oh, I remember you now. You are that Fatui that Ningguang told me about. Zhongli wallet."
-"Ehem, never heard that title."
-"So, will someone explain that mess?"
-"Maybe that Elemental hiding?"
-"Elemental?"
Nobody knew of whom I was speaking, until Oceanid appeared from a giant weighing scale. It floated before me and took the form of a human woman, who knelt before me.
-"Emperor."
-"I'm not your emperor, so there is no need to knell."
-"You are Spirit of the World. By that right, you are Emperor of all Spirits."
-"Rise and explain what is going on."
-"Yes."