"Where am I?"
The gates of the Plane of Euthymia had been locked tight. Contact with the Raiden Shogun was lost. This realization sent a jolt of alarm through Raiden Ei, who had been submerged in deep meditation.
Unfortunately, with the gate sealed, there was nothing she could do to respond to the events unfolding outside. She had no choice but to wait for the passage back to reality to reopen.
Fortunately, she did not have to wait long. Yet, she had no way of knowing what awaited her on the other side. Venturing out was a risk, but staying put meant remaining helpless. In the end, Raiden Ei chose to face the unknown.
"Ei? You finally woke up!"
"Shogun... is that you?"
Raiden Ei slowly opened her eyes, staring in confusion at the two massive figures towering before her.
"Yae Miko... why have you become so large?"
Watching Yae Miko cover her mouth to stifle a laugh, Raiden Ei sensed that something was terribly wrong. She tried to stand, only to find that even on her feet, she barely reached the knees of the two women kneeling on the floor.
She stared at her own hands, then reached up to touch her head.
Something was wrong. No, it was entirely wrong.
"Pfft, hahahaha!"
Yae Miko finally cracked, slamming her hand against the floor in a fit of uncontrollable laughter. Even Kamisato Ayaka, standing to the side, struggled to contain her own smile.
At this moment, the entirety of Raiden Ei's consciousness and power was contained within a small, puppet-like body. The two-headed-tall puppet looked quite cute, but if this were to be the face of the Raiden Shogun of Inazuma, the joke would be on them.
"What is going on here?"
Why had the Shogun transformed into this? Who had done it? Miko? Or was it the white-haired woman standing nearby? Raiden Ei had been secluded within the Plane of Euthymia for five hundred years and had never seen the outside world. Naturally, she did not recognize Kamisato Ayaka.
"Isn't it obvious? You look just like a little baby right now, Ei. Do you need your big sister to give you a candy?"
If Yae Miko did not know that Ei still possessed the power of a god, she might have actually tried to scoop her up into her arms.
"Enough of this nonsense! Since there is no danger, change me back!"
She remained convinced that the others had used some unknown method to trap her in this diminished form.
"Ahem. Ei, let me ask you a question. Before the Shogun lost contact with you... were you completely unaware of what was happening?"
Yae Miko's expression turned strange. How could the Shogun have fallen without Ei even knowing what had transpired?
"What could I possibly know? Why were the gates to the Plane of Euthymia suddenly sealed?"
Raiden Ei had a dozen questions burning in her mind. The gates to the Plane of Euthymia could not be closed by outsiders; only the Shogun held that power, unless someone possessed a strength that far surpassed her own. Yet, before the lockout, she had sensed absolutely no presence of a powerhouse in the vicinity.
Seeing the god so perplexed, Kamisato Ayaka pointed a finger behind her. Yae Miko stopped laughing, her expression shifting to one of sudden gravity.
Sensing the shift in atmosphere, Raiden Ei turned around. Not far away, a strange man sat watching them. Beside him sat... another Raiden Shogun. And scattered around him were what appeared to be the remnants of previous Shogun bodies.
"It seems you have finally awakened." The Raiden Shogun approached the tiny, puppet-like figure.
"You... are the Shogun? Why did you sever our connection?"
Ei stared at the familiar body before her, stunned. She could not fathom why they had been separated. Had the Heavenly Principles intervened? She instinctively looked toward the man.
"Do you see the wreckage around you?" The Shogun gestured to the scattered, damaged components on the floor. "Those were my former bodies. They were broken by him."
Raiden Ei approached a piece of discarded debris in disbelief. As the creator who had forged the Raiden Shogun puppet, she knew that the Shogun was telling the truth. This meant a formidable enemy had come to Inazuma.
"What is your objective?"
Raiden Ei locked her gaze onto Su Ran, who had remained silent, watching the spectacle unfold. Though Kamisato Ayaka possessed elemental power, she was ultimately mortal. Only Su Ran was different. She could not read him. It was not like looking into a fog; it was as if she could only see the man's physical form—nothing more.
"Objective? Should I count Kamisato Ayaka? Or Yae Miko? Or perhaps the Raiden Shogun herself?"
Su Ran smiled at the tiny Raiden Ei. What objective could he possibly have in Inazuma?
"What do you mean?"
Raiden Ei frowned. Was he here to assassinate them? But to have already broken the Shogun was, for all intents and purposes, a successful assassination. Why repair her? And why release Ei from the Plane of Euthymia?
"Isn't it simple?" Yae Miko poked Ei's small cheek. "Ei, from now on, we three will be serving the same man."
Raiden Ei slapped Miko's hand away.
"I have only one desire, and that is the pursuit of eternity. I will not allow anyone to become a tether or a burden on that path."
She would not become this man's partner. Not even if he were powerful. Unless he was eternity itself.
"Uh... you don't think I'm actually interested in you, do you?"
Su Ran did not know how to interpret Raiden Ei's sudden confidence.
"It isn't me?"
Receiving a flat denial left Raiden Ei feeling somewhat awkward. She felt a sting of embarrassment, as if she had been caught being arrogant. But wasn't she the Raiden Shogun?
"It is me!" the Raiden Shogun spoke up. "He saved my life. I have no way to repay such a debt, so I shall give myself to him."
"But the one who broke you was also him!"
If not for the sight of the old, mangled parts on the floor, Raiden Ei might have actually believed the Shogun's claim. The man who broke you is the same man who rebuilt you. How is that a life-saving debt? Shouldn't the crimes and merits cancel each other out? If anything, attacking a god was a far greater transgression.
"And yet," the Shogun added, "the one who saved me from the mission of pursuing eternity... is also him."