Chapter Text
Kazuha was no stranger to rooms like this, the tatami mat flooring and the bookshelves lining the walls stuffed full with all manner of books, official looking papers piled high on a solid oak desk. Except this room was far nicer than the one Kazuha remembered from his youth, but it smelled the same, of wood, old paper, and fresh ink.
It wasn’t difficult to reconstruct his grandfather looking over papers, frowning and brow furrowed, some unreachable sadness settled over his frame, and watery eyes only hopeful when settled on him. Not hopeful for the dusty crumbling walls around them, a house that filled with more ghosts day by day, and a name no one cared to remember, like he had assumed at the time, but hopeful for what he might do when it was all gone.
Kazuha stood examining the bonsai tree he had brought with him the last time he visited, whoever took care of it was doing an exceptional job and the plant looked incredibly healthy. It still surprised him how the Kamisato estate had become a regular staple of his visit when he was back in Inazuma.
He had, like most of course, heard of the tragedy the young kamisato heir faced when he himself was but a few years younger. His father and grandfather had long since accepted that no help was capable of saving them and like an unspoken agreement, one of the few decisions between them that hadn’t been a fight, had decided to fade into obscurity with as much dignity as possible. So it had been no small surprise to him then when years later this man, who had faced his trials and risen to become an incredibly important and influential figure on his own, had reached out to him with the guilt of a duty owed, information on the past and the offer of a home. But to Kazuha there was no wrong to forgive and had long since not needed the comforts of a home and had politely declined. Though he did not have it in his heart to decline the insistence to ‘stop by at the very least’ that the young lady Ayaka had expressed with such genuinity after learning of his existence.
He remembered her vaguely as a baby, there had been an event thrown to celebrate her birth where all the extended families and subsidiary clans had been invited. It was the fanciest event Kazuha had ever been to. She was such a round squishy thing wrapped in every type of blanket imaginable, even as young as he would have been back then it had amazed him that something could be so small. He did however distinctly remember Lady Kamisato smiling down at the small baby she held in her arms with such warmth and love the scene sat heavy on his chest.
So when Lady Ayaka had asked him, nearly a year ago now, to visit them with a smile just like her mothers he could not refuse. He had made good on his promise a few times since then and had grown friendly with the occupants of the estate, Ayaka and Thoma being some of the most welcoming people he had ever known and Ayato, though more often busy than not, had made it a point to have a meal with all of them when Kazuha visited. It was strange however, to be called into the study like this.
The sound of footsteps down the hallway told Kazuha that at least the pressing questions would be answered soon, as a few moments later Ayato finally entered the study bringing with him the faint scent of pond lilies.
“My apologies for keeping you waiting” he says as he takes his place at the desk across from Kazuha, “please take a seat”
“No need for apologies, this room allowed me quite the nostalgic trip into my own memory”
An almost imperceptible sad look flashed across Ayato’s face at that remark before he swiftly regained composure and moved on without prompt, handing Kazuha a neat stack of paper.
“Take a look at this and tell me what you think”
Given his task he took his time reading through the document, which he quickly parsed was a rebuttal essay on the events at Tatarasuna and the catastrophic furnace failure that took many lives, and the, still to this day, mystery of what stopped it. The original paper itself, anyone could tell, was a convoluted mess of conspiracy theories and guesswork muddled together in the rough semblance of an academic paper. But the rebuttal- the rebuttal was absolutely fascinating. Parsing out the flaws of the blunderbuss original article with witty intellect and no shortage of scathing but academically appropriate barbs concluding with sound reasoning and insights even Inazuman historians would find invaluable, brimming with details of his ancestors even Kazuha himself had thought lost to time and tragedy. The writing, sharp and intense, is so well worded one may even mistake it for poetry if read with the right cadence, he thinks.
Now having been freed of his duties as heir relatively early and the Kaedehara’s being a more martial centred family to begin with, Kazuha was not quite as familiar with academic texts as he could have been, and as he was sure Ayato was, but it was easy to see the brilliance of this work. He turns to the credits, struck by the thought of who could write such a captivating piece- Kazuha can’t help but burst into raucous laughter.
It’s a rare show for him, he knows, visually displaying such exuberant emotions, completely unmitigated, they didn’t usually come to him so naturally, but the unexpected moniker had caught him so off guard. It took Kazuha nearly a full minute to regain his composure, with which he turned to face Ayato, in fact if not for the soothing scent of lilies that still tickled the periphery of his senses he’d have forgotten he was in company at all. The other has taken to observing him with a bemused smile of his own, traces of earlier doubt dispersed from his face.
“Yes, Hat Guy indeed is a rather amusing name to sign an academic paper with, especially one of such clear calibre,” Ayato continued his smile melting to a more serious expression, “It surprised me further to learn that it is the only name this mysterious individual goes by in all of their publicly available academic works, and how little is known about them outside of this work.”
“Ahh, so it seems we’ve reached the crux of the issue, I was wondering why you suddenly asked me to read an essay from the Akademiya of all places”
“The information there, on your family, were you aware of it before?”
“I can’t say I was, not to this extent at least, I was aware of my ancestors not always being named Kaedehara but the information of their involvement with the furnace is new. It seems there is quite a lot I don’t yet know about my family’s past.”
“Nothing to concern yourself with, family histories can be complicated and burdensome things, sometimes,” Ayato shoots him a consoling look before continuing. “On the subject of family histories and paying certain dues, I was quite interested in yours for some time and did happen to look into this incident. Nothing of this calibre and, as much as possible, historical certainty of this paper exists in Inazuman archives and as far as travel information can tell me ‘Hat Guy’ has never been to Inazuma. So the question remains, how did he get this information? Now a once off paper like this could be explained away relatively easily, but-” at this he gestures to a pile of papers lying on his desk, “it's not just the one paper and now he writes on the current Inazuma political climate with frightening accuracy.”
“You think he’s dangerous?” Kazuha says quizzically.
“Not quite, but I think the information he possesses has the possibility of becoming troublesome for us, especially if we don’t know where he got it from,” At this he focuses attention back on Kazuha. “Now, quite obviously, this ‘Hat Guy’ isn't a matter of great and pressing Inazuman importance, however, there are parts of this story that still strike me as odd and I think would benefit from a more personal checking in on.”
“And Beidous' ship is next to dock in Sumeru,” Kazuha states, finally catching on to what Ayato is asking of him.
“I only ask because his writing on your family would give you an easier in than a personal agent of mine”
“Hmm, that it would”
“But, of course there is no need to burden yourself if you wish not to, it is only my own curiosity I wish to satisfy,” Ayato concludes with a suspiciously knowing look for someone only wanting to satisfy a curiosity as if he already knows Kazuha will agree.
He should decline. He normally would decline a request such as this. He had no interest and found little amusement in poking into the suspicions of others. But this author, his writing, tickled the back of Kazuha’s brain in a way that he did not want to let himself deny. Surely, there would be no harm done with some light investigating, a small voice that sounded suspiciously like Heizou’s chimed in the back of his head.
“Alright, I’ll do it,” Kazuha bows his head in quick agreement.
With their business concluded Kazha was due to head off, he could already hear light pacing a few rooms down the hallway, as though impatient for Ayato’s improtue meeting to end. As he begins to get up and leave Kazuha once again can't help but notice the pristine looking bonsai on the desk.
“Thoma is doing an excellent job with it” He nods at Ayato as he stands too.
“Yes, isn’t it just lovely, the flowers too are kept so impeccably” Ayato answers with the softest, most unguarded smile he’s ever seen on the man as he lightly brushes his fingers through the white petals of the flower, as if lost in thought for a second. Kazha moves to leave silently so as not to disturb the busy man in a rare moment of rest, but his movements don’t go as undetected as he’d hoped in the enclosed space as Ayato’s eyes snap back to him before he leaves.
“You know if the offer I made after our first meeting was an open one” Ayato states leaving him no room to interject, “if ever you do decide you’d like a home, ours will always welcome you.”
Ayato continues to smile at him warmly but makes no further moves to impede Kazuha’s escape as he returns a smile that he hopes was more serene and less sheepish than he actually felt. And escape he does saying a quick but polite goodbye to the estates other occupants before making his way back to Beidou’s ship in Ritou, they were set to depart the next morning.