"Hey Ayato!" said Kenshin with a smile after the success of the festival. It had only started and everyone was having fun.
And more importantly, looking at him with adoration, that satisfied Kenshin's need for attention, at least for now.
"Your dick is going to fall off" is the first thing Ayato said.
"Who is planning that!?" shouted a scared Kenshin. He didn't use his hose, and someone wanted to cut it? "Is it that failure of an Archon, or maybe the furball?!".
"Both, and a few more" Ayato said with pity.
"How dare they!" Kenshin shouted in indignation. "I helped them, and even revived one of them, and all I am getting is a free ticket to use magic? I will start collecting allies then".
'Well, good luck. There are no allies near you, only horny women' thought Ayato. Just thinking of having a thirst with the former Shogun was enough to turn his member into a pimple.
"I am leaving then" said Kenshin, a bit desperate to stop that dastardly plan. "The Radiant Knight will protect me".
"Sure" muttered Ayato, not knowing how to tell Kenshin that his precious Radiant Knight's mother was the one who started all this.
Kenshin, from his high position, was able to scan everyone in the festival. And he located the golden soul he was looking for.
"My Radiant Knight, save me!" he shouted, hugging Jean's legs. "Someone wants to cripple me!"
"What are you talking about?" asked Jean with a red face. Now it was decided that Kanshin was 'hers' in Mondstadt, and the main problem to being in a relationship with him, the other women, was gone.
She didn't think about something important, his own consent.
The 'meeting' had decided who Kesnhin belonged to, somehow ignoring all possibility of him rejecting them.
"That purple fossil and the pink menace are planning on leaving me without descendence" replied Kenshin, noting that Jean's legs were incredible. Soft to the touch, but also firm due to all the physical training she did as a knight. And they were long too.
"Kenshin, I think you are misunderstanding something" said Jean with a sigh. She had just been in a meeting about it, how could those 2 be planning to deprive themselves of the possibility of having sex?
"Well, Ayato told me, and we have a saying here. 'Bros before hoes', I don't think he would break that tenet" mused Kenshin a bit unsure. If his Radiant Knight said it, maybe he really misunderstood something.
'Hmm, what's this?' Kenshin saw something shining, so he did all grown-up babies do, touch it. And he could retrieve it, meaning it was on Jean, but wasn't her soul.
It was a parchment made of something with a soul, no, it was a parchment affected by someone's soul.
A soul he recognized. How could he confuse the souls of the Boss of the Lands?
"Kenshin!" Jean shouted in alarm. She kept a copy of the Contract under her mother's orders, but she didn't know how to explain it to Kenshin.
"What's this?" asked Kenshin with a serious face. He couldn't read it, so he needed to trick Jean into revealing something and judging from her panicked reaction, it was concerning him. "Jean, how could you?".
"I-I-" Jean stammered, not knowing what to say.
"To think I trusted you as my Radiant Knight....." Kenshin sadly said, wanting Jean to reveal something. "I want an explanation".
".....okay" Jean muttered. "We had a meeti-"
"He is bluffing" said a new calm voice. "He has no idea of what the Contract is about".
Kenshin looked at the newcomer with a stink eye.
"Milady, kindly shut up. I need to know what's this. If even my Radiant Knight is scared of me finding out, it's big trouble".
"You don't" replied Arlecchino calmly. "But I will tell you anyway. Come with me, it's time I tell you why I came".
Kenshin hugged Jean's legs one last time and confirmed that, indeed, he liked them. After that, he followed Arlecchino.
"What do you want?" asked curiously Kenshin once they went away far enough that nobody could listen to them.
"I need to bring you to Snezhnaya" replied Arlecchino, her voice not revealing anything. "No matter the means I need to use".
"That sounds bad" noted Kenshin.
"I said no matter the means" said Arlecchino suddenly approaching Kenshin, pushing her bosom to his chest. Kenshin was a head taller than her, so she needed to look up to see his surprised face and gorgeous eyes, opened due to the surprise.
"Uh, ummm, well, I mean" Kenshin stammered. He didn't care about entering Yae's room when she was changing because he couldn't see anything, but feeling Arlecchino's boobs in her chest was another thing altogether.
"So, will you come with me, or do I need to persuade you using some other ways?" Arlecchino asked, for the first time, in a seductive voice.
The change caught Kenshin off guard, but he looked at Arelcchino's soul and saw that she was calm.
"Well, that's not an offer I would refuse" Kenshin admitted. "If you were actually excited about it".
"And yet, I need to take you with me" insisted Arlecchino, hugging Kenshin closer to her.
"Is that why Signora is here?" asked Kenshin, trying to stay calm. But Arlecchino pushing her whole body into his was making it hard. "Why do you want me to go back with you anyway? You already got my book".
"But the rest want more" said Arlecchino hugging Kenshin tighter and whispering in his ear. "They know there are some things they only can do in your presence, and some benefits that will only be reaped with your help".
"But-but then I shouldn't go right?" asked Kenshin, sensing Arlecchino's warm breath in his ear. "If they are your enemies, I shouldn't make them stronger right?".
"Even so, I'm asking for your help. I need to keep my cover" Arlecchino kept whispering in Kenshin's ear.
Kenshin felt conflicted. He wanted to accept Arlecchino's 'persuasion', but he needed to consider his complicated romantic position and Arlecchiino's feelings, as she didn't seem to be excited about this. Accepting her persuasion could damage their relationship, maybe forever.
Their relationship was based on mutual trust and an offer of help, and if Kenshin decides to move forward that trust may be damaged. She might keep working with him, but strictly as a business partner.
So accepting this now was a no.
But he also needed to help her or her cover will be blown up.
"I need to bring you back" said Arlecchino caressing the back of his head while pushing her boobs against him. "Or fail after 'persuading' you".
"That's a complicated decision" whispered Kenshin. They were trapped. Even if Arlecchino was ready to do this for her vengeance she had her pride, and what she needed to do was basically do whatever she needed to do to bring Kenshin back. "Is there something else you need to bring, so I can stay here?".
Arlecchino sighed and stepped back, sensing that Kenshin refused her 'persuasion' indirectly.
And she felt relieved. Relieved that she trusted the correct person.
"Harbingers have different goals" she said in her calm voice again. "But you are the most important one, along with the Gnosis".
"What's that?" asked a confused Kenshin.
"I thought that with your ability, you would already know about it" it was Arlecchino who was confused now. "You are near that Archon all day, how have you missed it?".
"Are those things every Archon has that you guys are looking for?" Kenshin remembered how Signora was looking for something Barbatos had.
"Yes" Arlecchino nodded, but she didn't have any expectations of that stubborn woman to surrender her power as an Archon.
"I will be back" and yet, Kenshin decided to push forward in this direction. "Archon or not, she is my Assistant now".
"I will go with you" Arlecchino calmly said, but hope was born in her chest. It's not that she hated Kenshin, but having sex because she wanted to and having her first experience because she was told to was definitely not the same.
They left the festival avenue and went to the Shrine, where Kenshin thought Ei would be, or at least Yae would.
They were silent on their way to the Shrine, each one lost in their thought.
'I hope I can manage to get something, even if it's some information to be able to cancel my 'orders' with Kenshin' thought Arlecchino.
'Those boobs' thought Kenshin.
"Ei, show me that Gnosis" Kenshin entered the room not caring about the state their participants were in. He only saw the puppet, because Ei, Makoto and Yae were in the Plane of Euthymia, but he knew they could hear him.
"Why?" asked Ei, who controlled the puppet and looked at Kenshin with an appraising gaze.
'So this is the man Makoto is interested in' she thought, looking at Kenshin like a new person.
One thing was the annoying guy who had fun mocking her, and another was the Kenshin who was able to stake his life for Inazuma. She needed to understand which one was Makoto interested in. She thought of the latter, but she needed to be sure.
"Because your boss orders it" Kenshin said, focusing on the other 2 people in the Plane. "You 2, whoever got that thing, whatever it is, I want it in my hands now, I want to see what it is".
"Well well, aren't you the man of the hour" said Yae gritting her teeth, remembering how this man was causing her more headaches.
Not realizing that Kenshin didn't even know of the 'meeting'.
"And the same man wants that Gnosis" Kenshin said, extending his hand.
"What are you going to do with it?" asked Yae with a frown. Ei had entrusted her with the Gnosis, and she needed to be sure of Kenshin's intentions.
"For now, look at it. I am too curious to sleep soundly without knowing what it is" Kenshin said pointing at his eyes.
Yae hesitated, but upon receiving a nod from Makoto, she left the room.
A few minutes later, she came back with something.
"The Electro Gnosis...." muttered Arlecchino. One of the most difficult Gnosis to obtain was just in front of her eyes.
It had the figure of a bishop in chess, and it shone with a mesmerizing purple light.
"Bleeergh!" everyone looked at the puking Kenshin, who saw something different.
For him, a soul was sacred, hence why he didn't try to kill something, even to test his ability.
But all he saw in the Gnosis was the mutilated fragment of a soul, a fragment obtained by tearing off a part of the whole soul. Some tendrils, proof of this tearing, were still moving, trying to reconnect with the missing fragments of the soul.
Almost like seeing a human's arm muscles, still moving trying to reconnect with the shoulder after being torn off.
"Kenshin, are you okay?" Ei was pretty scared after seeing this. She saw those blacks 'somethings', and it made her realize that there were some scary things in this world that only Kenshin could see.
"Just...give her that thing" muttered Kenshin after wiping his mouth clean. "I don't want that thing in Inazuma".
"Are you sure?" asked Yae with a hesitant tone rare in her. "This is what makes an Archon, well, an Archon".
"It could make me the master of the world, and I would still flush it through the toilet" said Kenshin with a disgusted face. "Wait here, I will pick a box for it, and wash my mouth. A few times".
After Kenshin left, only 4 women were left, looking at each other.
"What do you want with the Gnosis?" asked Makoto who switched with Ei. "I was the one to receive it, even if I never knew what it was".
"That is not something I'm privy to" replied Arlecchino with her level voice.
"And yet, he is ready to give it to you" Yae sighed tiredly. She trusted Kenshin, and to make him feel this disgusted, this Gnosis was probably something extremely unpleasant.
Arlecchino didn't reply, acknowledging it. But she still didn't want to get her hopes up, not until she got the Gnosis in her hand.
"I'm back" said Kenshin with a refreshed face. "Just put it here, I don't want to look at it again".
Yae complied and put the Gnosis in the box Kenshin was carrying.
Once he felt the weight of the Gnosis in the box, Kenshin poured a lot of his special ink in the box, and used it to make a solid block that wouldn't let the box open, until someone with deep knowledge of souls managed to do it.
Having read his book, the Tsaritsa should be able to open it.
"Take it" Kenshin pushed the box into Arlecchino's arms without hesitation. "The Tsaritsa should be able to open it, and nobody else will be able to steal it from you".
"I see" nodded Arlecchino, stowing the box away. "I will leave now, I already got what I came for in Inazuma" she added sending a glance to Ei and Yae, the latter one had a frown hearing her.
I know what you are going to say. Why give the Gnosis?
If you found a severed arm in your house, would you keep it?
Kenshin preferred to send that disgusting thing away, helping Arlecchino in the process.
But he has already thought of a way to make sure Snezhnaya doesn't fuck him sideways after collecting the Gnoses, but it will come in the future.