Chapter Text
Aether took a deep breath. In, out. Here he was standing alone in the middle of a market in Inazuma City, Lumine having run off with Dainsleif. Curse his sister for never communicating her plans with him. Well, either way, he’d confront her about it when they got back to the hotel. It was pretty standard to the way they usually operated, after all.
He decided that instead of looking for Lumine, he might as well walk around and take in the market. It was summer after all, so the weather was nice. There were also plenty of stalls selling sun umbrellas, so he could always buy one if the heat got too much to bear. Plenty of options.
There was a stand selling traditional youkai masks and he found himself gravitating toward it, picking one off the rack to inspect.
The shop owner smiled at him, “Are you interested in buying that one? Since it seems to be your first time here in Inazuma, I’ll throw in a discount.”
“Oh, thank you,” Aether tapped his phone on the card reader, paying for the mask he had picked up. The shop owner even helped him put it on the side of his head, slightly keeping the sun out of his face. Better than nothing when it came to cover from the sun, he supposed.
After a couple of hours of walking around and taking in the sights that the market had to offer, he decided to text Lumine and see just what she had been up to. He would text Dain too, but he had a habit of rarely responding to messages unless they were from Lumine. Probably because they were dating, but it wasn’t exactly Aether’s place to comment on his sister’s romantic endeavors.
“Seriously… where are you…” he spoke aloud as he typed out the message, doing his best not to make any typos. The river that flowed through the city was to his left, and he used it as a landmark to give his sister a general idea of where he was, “Just follow the river and you’ll find me eventually… and done.”
His finger was just about to press down on the ‘send’ button when he felt something akin to a shove come from his right side. Aether let out a yelp, phone flying out of his hands as he fell into the river, the mask previously seated on the side of his head falling down to cover it completely, obscuring his vision.
The water was freezing and Aether would have cursed the moment he hit it, if not for the water that rushed into his mouth. Trying not to take any more of it in, he managed to pull himself up and poke his head above the water, coughing and gasping for breath.
He pulled the mask off of his face, taking in his surroundings as he bobbed in the river. Strangely enough, he didn’t seem to be where he had fallen in back at the market and a piece of Inazuman folklore that he had heard in passing was brought to mind— that sometimes, an unlucky mortal could be spirited away or fall into the world of the youkai.
Regardless of that, he first paddled his way to the river’s shore, and pulled himself up onto the bank, collapsing onto the dirt. His clothes were, strangely enough, not at all wet and the mask was somehow still hanging loosely around his neck. He reached for his phone. Gone. It must have fallen out when I fell in the water… shit, Lumine’s going to be pissed.
Despite the fact that Aether’s clothes were dry, his hair did not share this same miraculous capability and his usual braid was now sopping wet and dripping down onto the ground. He tried to wring it out to the best of his ability, but to no avail.
After finally managing to get some of the water out of his hair, Aether took the chance to look around at his surroundings. He was in a forest with bamboo that almost wholly obscured the sky, and what he could see informed him that it was nighttime. He reached for a bamboo shoot to steady himself as he stood up, but instead found himself falling flat. Around his leg was something long and pink, and—
Aether screamed. It was instinctive, really, but there was a creature with its tongue wrapped around his leg. His leg!
“Ohmyarchons, ew, ew, ew, get off, get off!” He did his best to kick at the creature, but to no avail. Instead, it slowly approached him, its grip tight. A sinking feeling made itself at home in his chest and Archons, is this how I’m going to go? Please no, I swear I’ll pray to any and every Archon every day, just someone save me, please!
A steady hum surrounded the air around him and the creature, calm footsteps accompanying it.
“Come driving rain or winds that churn, I shall return, by blade alone, armed, if barefoot…” the single slash of a sword severed the creature from its tongue, freeing Aether, “…to my home.”
This new, mysterious guest sheathed their blade as the creature ran off into the distance. They offered Aether a hand, and he gazed at it warily.
“...how do I know you won’t kill me?”
They smiled, red eyes staring into his own, “You have no way of knowing. But there is also no harm in trying, lest you wish to face that one again.”
Aether gazed at them before nodding slightly and grasping their hand, letting them pull him up. They smiled, a calm and disarming smile, pulling a flute from their sleeves.
“Come now, follow me. The wind has said which way to go, and we shall follow it to our destination.”
With a swirl, they turned around and walked into the forest, making Aether almost trip over his own feet as he rushed to keep up.
“I am Kaedehara Kazuha, a wanderer who roams this land. Since you seem to be lost, let us journey together for a time.”