[Main Quest: Purify Stormterror]
La Signora.
Rosalyne.
Kiyono Fugin whispered the name.
A memory from Rostam—no, from his own past—quivered faintly in his chest.
He wouldn't deny it, because Rostam was himself.
All past events came back to him.
Kiyono Fugin clutched his heart and closed his eyes. Those events seemed like yesterday. The slightest recollection brought back the reek of gunpowder, the demon dragon Durin's rampaging roars, and the corrosive blood eating into his skin as he collapsed helplessly at the bottom of the valley.
It was strange. He had already died, and his memories should have ended there, yet he could still feel those tears.
The young woman's tears, moist and crystal clear.
He had written her a letter, telling her not to return to Mondstadt during that time, but that foolish girl insisted on coming back, making her witness his embarrassing side.
La Signora. It was almost absurd how much she had changed. The scholar's robes and the young woman's white dress were gone, replaced by a crimson mask and a dark gown. Kiyono remembered a shy, timid girl who often wore a hood and hid behind him when speaking to strangers, clutching at his sleeve.
But now she was different. She was so proud, dressed in a deep black gown, trailing a cloak. Her transformation was truly immense.
The Human Principles System asked, [Kiyono Fugin, will you tell her?]
Kiyono Fugin replied:
"No." He said. "I won't. Never."
["Why?"]
Kiyono Fugin stepped onto the dimly lit mountain path. As he hurried along, he replied:
"Because I don't have much time left."
From the moment he inherited Rostam's memories, erosion had become unstoppable.
["Yes."]
He coughed once, the coldness scrambling in his lungs,
"I once learned a saying: 'Do not form bonds, lest you add to your loneliness.' If loneliness is destined, then from the start, do not form bonds. I am about to die now. Even if she knows, it will only add to her loneliness. I came to sever this bond. Moreover..."
["Moreover?"]
Kiyono Fugin paused, lowering his gaze, feeling the chilly aura within him—elemental power from Rosalyne.
That power, which had damaged him at the very foundation, had played a major part in the collapse of Kiyono Fugin's body.
"I don't want her to know. She may have been the one who killed Rostam," Kiyono Fugin said. "She would be devastated."
"One old regret has yet to end, and another has already begun."
["Even though she would kill you?"]
Kiyono Fugin shrugged. "Once the erosion began, I wasn't going to live much longer anyway. I don't want to trouble anyone again just before I die."
["What do you plan to do?"]
"I want her to continue on without any attachments."
Kiyono Fugin's expression was serious. "In the years to come, when she recalls this, it will just be frozen memories. Maybe she'll think she killed an ordinary Mondstadt knight, an insignificant person. That way, she won't be sad or regretful."
"I don't want Rostam's lingering soul to torment her—I hope she can peacefully continue on the path she chose."
["Do you think the path she chose is correct?"]
"No, I don't think so. I don't think her path is correct."
Kiyono Fugin shook his head and gazed at the wan moon. The Whispering Woods sang low in the wind; beyond the trees lay his destination.
Within Fudoshin, everything was clear and still. He could sense the sailor McCa. He was still alive, the flame of his life flickering in the night.
"But I respect her choice. She was a willful and proud girl, but she had her own opinions. She persisted in her path for five hundred years."
"I have no right to deny her persistence, nor to deny the meaning of her five hundred years."
["Humans are so strange."]
He paused. "Take the Raiden Shogun of Inazuma—that was the Raiden Shogun, wasn't it? That path of Eternity she insists on. I doubt I approved of it back then. I probably thought it was utter nonsense. But so what?"
"Kiyono Raimei will respect her path, even if he doesn't agree."
Respect.
["You are enemies now."]
"Yes."
Kiyono Fugin lightly gripped Kamigiri, which vibrated slightly, emitting a low hum. "I will struggle with all my might. Whether she kills me or I kill her, it's all respect. Enemies are enemies."
["You must know:"]
["It's not your time to die yet. Your body is not mature, and your life's mission is not yet complete."]
["Don't make the same mistake as last time."]
["You shouldn't go to save that sailor now. He's just an ordinary person, and you have a more important meaning."]
Kiyono laughed and shook his head, "What meaning? What special meaning do I have? We're all mortals! All just ordinary people! Do I have some damn special meaning?"
He drew the ale from inside his coat and took a sip. Its warmth spread through his stomach, and the scent of malt rose in his throat. Well, that settled it: Kiyono Fugin had inherited a taste for drink in this life too.
["Don't die now."]
"So I'm saying!" Kiyono Fugin downed another gulp of beer, exhaled a puff of steam, and said freely, "I will struggle with all my might!"
—
McCa no longer wished to struggle.
McCa coughed.
He raised his head with some effort. Wan moonlight filtered through the sparse branches and fell across him. The gray sky looked as though it had been covered with heavy cloth.
Not far away was his ship.
This sailor had been sailing the seas for thirty years. The traces of the ocean seemed to have been etched deep into his bones.
Snezhnaya was a cruel country, and the punishment for traitors had long been written into law.
Tonight, he was to be executed.
He didn't really regret it, accepting his fate calmly.
In recent days, McCa had often recalled his years at sea: the briny wind brushing his face and roughening his skin. He also thought of his child. It had been a year since they had seen each other, hadn't it?
How were they doing?
McCa thought about his grave. He did not need one. If they buried him at sea, the waves might carry him home to see his child.
"Hey. Sailor."
The Fatui executioner wore a dark, fearsome mask and carried a long cleaver whose cold gleam reflected across McCa's face. He seized the sailor by his sea-blue hair, bared his neck, and set the blade against his throat.
"Are you ready?" he said, looking disdainful. "Anything else to say? Any final wishes?"
The executioner despised this man, or rather, he despised all mortals. Weak and powerless, babbling about wanting to protect something, yet unable to even save his own life. It was ridiculous.
He loved to sever their throats, listening to their despairing wails, blood spurting from their insect-like necks, a beautiful macabre sight.
But now, the executioner didn't mind giving the man some time at the end. He quite wanted to hear the man's pleas.
"You haven't killed me yet. It's been two days."
"That is not how efficiently the Fatui operate, my lord."
The executioner was stunned.
Unexpectedly, McCa didn't cry or shout. His expression didn't change. He just smiled silently.
"You want to keep me around to lure that boy out of Mondstadt, don't you? That boy is a Knight of Favonius. Maybe he'll come to save me. You must be planning that."
"When he comes to save me, you can use my life against him—make him hesitate, perhaps even force him to surrender."
He had served the Fatui all his life and knew their methods inside out.
If the boy truly came for him, neither of them would survive.
No one could defeat La Signora atop the tower.
...So the commoner had some brains after all.
But still, he was just a civilian, without a Vision or a Delusion, no different from livestock.
The executioner scoffed and looked down at him with contempt. "So what, commoner?"
"You're right, that little bastard is coming soon, and we'll kill him too. What can you do about it?"
"Lord. Lord. I'm a commoner."
McCa raised his head, the sailor's dark brown eyes reflecting the luster of the sea,
"I've spent my whole life bowing my head just to survive, but I refuse to die with my head bowed. Death is the shape a life finally takes. I cannot bear to wait helplessly for someone else to save me—especially a child—or to die as nothing but a burden."
"What are you trying to say?" The executioner laughed mockingly. "What can you do?"
...
What can he do?
He was just a sailor, thirty years at sea. He didn't have a Vision, he didn't have a Delusion, he was powerless.
"I'm going to die no matter what. It's better to die alone than to die together."
"What?" The executioner asked.
McCa thought of that boy. If he ever saw his son again, the child would be about the same age, wouldn't he?
They shared a drink when they left, having a drink together meant being friends, right?
"My heart belongs to that pure sea. I won't taint it. Lord."
McCa spoke through clenched teeth, eyes wide and bloodshot. Every word seemed torn from the depths of his throat. "What I will show you is the heart of a mortal—the heart of a sailor."
—"My death will take the shape of this sea!"
The cleaver was placed at McCa's neck, originally just to scare him.
But McCa thrust himself into the blade. He moved so quickly that even the executioner failed to react.
His pupils contracted, sensing something, but it was too late to stop it.
That bastard—he was going to face death!
The sharp blade cut deep into the sailor's neck. Blood burst forth in blossoming sprays, moonlight flowing across it as Uncle McCa crumpled to the ground and the light rapidly faded from his eyes.
"What… What kind of joke is this!"
The executioner couldn't understand. He couldn't comprehend it!
He had never seen a mortal like this.
To do this much for a stranger boy?
The plan had fallen apart. The executioner ground his teeth. In all his years carrying out executions, this was the first time he had ever lost his composure so completely.
The light in the sailor's eyes had already gone out, yet the executioner felt as though those eyes were still alive, blazing with a terrifying light.
Cold, desolate moonlight covered McCa's body. The tide lapped softly against the shore. He had fallen on the beach, as close to the ocean as he could be. As his eyes slowly closed, he heard the sea in the silence.
After thirty years adrift, the sailor had finally returned home.
Every sailor carried a pure, unblemished sea within his heart. McCa had sailed for thirty years, and at last he had reached that quiet, peaceful ocean where no storm would ever rise again.
A sailor's death took the shape of the sea.
—
Kiyono Fugin faltered and came to a stop.
["What is it?"]
Human Principles asked.
"That flame went out," Kiyono said softly.
["Impossible. The Fatui are using him to threaten you. They would never kill their bargaining chip beforehand. That makes no sense."]
"He took his own life."
Kiyono had no evidence, yet he reached that conclusion all the same. He lifted his violet eyes to the darkened night sky. After a long while, he lowered his head.
He took out a cigarette, wrapped it with tobacco, and lit it with a match. When the smoke had dispersed, he put it out and poured his ale onto the earth. Steam rose from the warm liquor in a faint mist.
The cold night wind stirred the leaves, and the Whispering Woods sang in a low rustle.
["...I will never understand you humans."]
Human Principles spoke at last.
["What will you do? You should leave. Do not let his sacrifice go to waste."]
"I'll keep going. Because the blade that killed him is still alive."
["I will never understand you humans."]
["Always doing things that serve no purpose."]
Kiyono Fugin stepped forward. Clear wind gathered around him as he moved faster and faster, his figure trailing overlapping afterimages. The world rushed away before him. He pressed on through the forest, and every tree along his path bowed beneath the pressure of the wind.
All of the Whispering Woods sang in time with his footsteps.
The executioner kicked the sailor's corpse and spat. He was furious—truly furious.
Why? Why?
Why couldn't this fool kneel and beg like all the others? Why couldn't he simply obey?
Now the entire plan had fallen apart. How could he possibly explain this to Lady Signora aboard the ship?
Thinking of Lady Signora, the executioner felt a chill down his spine.
Her orders were clear:
Do not kill this sailor. Use him to threaten Kiyono Fugin. If the plan succeeded, erase the sailor's memories completely.
But now the sailor was dead, and that Mondstadt knight had not appeared. He had completely violated Lady Signora's orders.
He couldn't imagine his own fate.
The more he thought, the angrier the executioner became. He kicked the sailor's corpse hard again, his boots twisting the man's head, cursing: "Bastard..."
But he couldn't get the words out.
The wind of the Whispering Woods swept past his shoulders. He had intended to lift his cleaver to strike again in anger, but the blade couldn't swing any further.
It was a moment.
The blade was still attached to his left hand, shot upward, caught in the wind.
The trees swayed, dust flew, millions of leaves scattered in the air, falling down slowly.
Blood dripped along the blade of Kamigiri, ticking on the sand.
Kiyono Fugin wiped the blood from Kamigiri, turned around, his dark-purple eyes devoid of any emotional fluctuations, calmly staring at the man.
[Fatui: Executioner]
[Level: 65]
He was stronger than the Fatui Pyro Agent Kiyono had faced earlier, likely one of La Signora's elite subordinates.
"Hiss... hiss."
The executioner covered his severed arm, eyes wide beneath the ghost mask, blood-red from excitement, his mouth split wide, "You still came, huh? Alright, alright. Very well."
He was a madman, seemingly without pain perception. His arm was severed, yet he was laughing.
Kiyono Fugin had returned; of course, he would laugh.
The executioner picked up the cleaver from the ground, removed his mask, revealing a ferocious face. A Delusion was embedded in his hollow left eye socket.
He bowed down, the Delusion's light flickering, disappearing from the spot, the cleaver swung toward Kiyono's face.
Kiyono didn't speak, didn't retreat, took a step forward, Kamigiri extended forward, blocking the cleaver. The sword's wind was sharp and agile, following the executioner's wrist upwards, first severing his tendons, piercing through his body, destroying muscle fibers, pulverizing bones.
"Eh..."
The executioner realized his right hand could no longer exert strength, drooping weakly. Kiyono Fugin slightly lifted his left leg, suddenly accelerated, firmly planted it against the executioner's abdomen. He felt all his internal organs overturn.
The massive wind pressure penetrated his spine, he was like a cannonball launched, disappearing instantly. Multiple giant trees were smashed, each collision severed a bone. After breaking ten trees, his chest completely collapsed.
The trees fell to the ground, kicking up heavy dust.
The dust cleared, Kamigiri sliced through the dust, straight into the executioner's calf, pinning him firmly to the ground.
Kiyono Fugin walked out of the dust, approaching him, lowering his dark-purple eyes, calmly gazing down.
"Hiss."
The executioner's right hand wounds healed quickly, he pulled out a dagger from his leg, swiftly moved it towards Kiyono's throat, as fast as lightning.
But Kiyono Fugin's eyes did not blink. The wind blade moved swiftly, cleanly cutting off his hand.
Like a butcher dissecting an ox.
The executioner finally felt fear. He wasn't afraid of death, but he was afraid of the boy's gaze. Suddenly, he felt an illusion—he had become like those mortals he once executed, helpless in the face of immense fear.
"Spare… Spare me."
"Beg you, spare me..."
He trembled his lips, wanting to say something, but Kiyono Fugin didn't give him the chance.
"He should not be begging for mercy," Kiyono said.
The executioner was stunned.
Kamigiri sliced off his head, the executioner's head flew up.
His terrified, trembling expression was forever frozen on his corpse.
Kiyono Fugin wiped the blood from the blade, sheathed Kamigiri, his footsteps on the sand, approaching the sailor once more.
He lay quietly on the sand.
Truly strange.
Kiyono Fugin lowered his head, watching this uncle.
They had only met once, shared one drink.
The gentle breeze slowly smoothed the wrinkles of his clothes, wiping away the blood. Kiyono Fugin helped him close his eyes.
He paused.
"Bastard." Kiyono suddenly cursed.
"I wasn't going to live long anyway," he said softly. "Who needs you?"
Silence.
Deadly silence.
Only the sound of the waves gently lapping the shore.
"I will allow you to bury him," a calm, emotionless voice said behind him. "Then you may die."
The crimson mask, crimson eye makeup, trailing a magnificent gown.
[La Signora]
She calmly pronounced this judgment.
Kiyono Fugin turned his head, staring at her. Rosalyne... no, La Signora, she was no longer the girl he remembered. The cold moonlight shone between them, interweaving with the dark night. Along the coastline, half was shadow, half was moonlight like water.
Kiyono Fugin didn't know if he was in the light or in the darkness.
He was already very tired.
"Why?" Kiyono said.
"I despise the weak, but I respect the strong." La Signora calmly said, "That sailor deserves a proper funeral."
—
Dawn was drawing near.
Kiyono Fugin burned McCa's body and watched as the flames slowly reduced him to ash.
The tide was beautiful. He scattered the ashes into the water, and the waves carried the sailor's soul away through fold after fold of foam. Kiyono gazed at the moonlit sea and said softly,
"Not bad. Even in death, you still get to ride the waves."
He smiled, took out another cigarette, and lit it. Smoke slowly dispersed into the air. What a mess—he had picked up the bad habit again.
Had Kiyono Raimei loved smoking and drinking so much in his previous life because he, too, had carried so many sorrows?
How absurd.
"Your turn," La Signora said calmly. "I told you that the next time I saw you, I would kill you."
She stared at the boy as that tangled past surfaced once more. She despised this sense of déjà vu.
La Signora intended to bury the past completely.
Besides, whatever his reasons, the boy had killed a Fatui Executioner and a debt collector. He was now an eternal enemy of the Fatui.
Those who challenged the Fatui's authority could only die.
"Rosalyne."
But the boy looked at her with a sorrowful calm. That emotion flowed through his violet eyes as the first light of dawn slowly rose and shone within them.
"If that is your wish, I will let you kill me," he said softly, tightening his grip on Kamigiri until his nails dug into his palm.
"But not now. It will be soon."
"I haven't fulfilled my purpose yet. I cannot let another person's death go to waste."
His voice was low, but over the quiet beach, the words fell with surprising weight.
"You cannot escape," Rosalyne said. She had not yet realized how the boy knew the name she had cast aside.
[Main Quest: Purify Dvalin]
"So—" Kiyono smiled. "Until you kill me, I'll fight with everything I have. Who knows? I might even turn the tables."