Our child

"Mom, please leave it alone" Kenshin pleaded with a tired face. "I'm happy, your God is very happy and Jean is also happy".

"How can you give them all the love they deserve?" asked Mio with a frigid voice.

"I don-"

"Shh" Mio hissed, and Jean immediately shut up.

"Mom, we all have our circumstances" repeated Kenshin rubbing his forehead. "We are all adults here. If at some point someone is unhappy, we can talk things out like normal human beings and go on our ways".

"I don't think it will work" interjected Yahiko with a shake of his head. "But you are your own person, you and the other women can decide for yourselves. Just take in mind that a relationship only works when it is equal".

"I will" Kenshin sighed, and looked towards his still-angry mother. "Come on mom, cheer up. What do I need to do to earn your forgiveness?"

Mio looked coldly at Kenshin, but had a thoughtful expression.

"Give a grandson" Mio's answer left Kenshin stunned and Jean blushing. "No, even better. Give a granddaughter".

"Sure, what colour do you want her?" asked a sarcastic Kenshin. "Also, if you could tell me the number of eyes you want my child to have, maybe I could do something. Wait a minute...."

"You are not going to mess with the souls of an unborn child" Jean's face expressed a coldness the Tsaritsa would have been envious of.

"Jean, do you think I would manipulate the soul of a baby to make him or her the strongest being Teyvat has ever seen?" asked Kenshin with a disappointed expression. "What? I probably can".

"Now I don't want you to have a baby any more" muttered Mio.

"Don't worry, he will behave" Jean promised with a face Kenshin didn't believe the Radiant Knight would do. "Or I will tell Yae to turn him into a girl again".

"Mercy!"

ZUM

"AHHHH!" Mio screamed in fear when a short boy with a horned mask appeared next to her.

"...." Xiao, who came to deliver a letter, had an apologetic look on his face only Kenshin sensed.

"Spear Boy, you are going to leave my mother without the possibility of having grandkids" commented Kenshin.

'Too late for that' thought Xiao.

"Hey, why are you resigned?" asked Kenshin with a frown. "Something I should know?"

"No, not at all" Xiao's voice came distorted under the mask, but he spoke with conviction in his voice.

If Xiao knew something in this dangerous and mysterious world, was that he wasn't going to get involved in this mess. He learned this morning that the.....strong-willed, former Electro Archon was pregnant and between her, Kenshin, and the baby involved, he wasn't sure how much longer this beautiful continent would resist.

Jean only looked curiously at Xiao, but she was already aware of his identity as Kenshin had told her everything he had done over these years.

"Take this" Xiao gave the letter to Kenshin, while Mio tried to calm down after seeing what she thought was a person appear so suddenly. "And good luck".

ZUM

"That was ominous" muttered Kenshin. "I don't want to read this, the moment I do is the moment a problem appears".

"The problem appeared the moment someone needed to send you a letter" interjected Yahiko with a warning look.

"But I don't know about it right?" Kenshin asked back, but seeing his mother's face turning black, he quickly opened the envelope. "If only your sandal hadn't left me with a pretty big trauma....."

"Give that to me, I don't trust you" Yahiko, who felt that Kenshin had lost all his credibility, took the letter under his son's stunned gaze. "For all we know, you could have another woman hidden".

"I don't think little big Kenshin can deal with more" commented Kenshin off-handedly. "Do you know I much he worked this last months?"

"Kenshin, I don't want to hear about your 'adventures'" said Mio with a frigid voice.

"Well, you should. Those adventures are what will give you your so-called granddaughter" replied Kenshin with a raised eyebrow. "And believe me, I have been working hard. The only reason you don't have a grandchild by now is because my 'opponent' in those ferocious battles is taking some measures".

"Kenshin..." Jean sighed, knowing that there was only a woman who called everything a 'battle'.

"Now, can you tell me what is so important?" asked Kenshin, looking at Yahiko.

"The woman called Guizhong is pregnant, and wants you to check on the baby" responded Yahiko with a relieved sight, knowing that his son didn't have yet another woman. 

"I will wait for your return" said Jean with a slight smile.

Plof

"You are coming with me, Guizhong probably wants to see you again" Kenshin picked Jean up on his back after rendering her unable to move her body, and looked at his parents. "You 2 are coming with me".

Yahiko and Mio looked at each other but with a sigh, they nodded. They understood that they would be captured again and be used as hostages against their son, so they needed to leave for a safe place, mainly Inazuma.

Where apparently their son was in a 'deep' relationship with the Almighty Shogun.

"How did this happen..." mused Mio, not knowing if she would need to call her God 'daughter'.

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"Ahh, Liyue, where my adventure as an agitator started" mused Kenshin with a nostalgic air. "Hey Jean, wake up. I'm too tired to keep carrying you".

"Kenshin!" Jean was able to move her body all of a sudden and wore an outraged expression. "I need to-"

"Come with me" Kenshin stopped her in her tracks. "What's the worst thing that could happen if you leave for a single day?"

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The door of a certain room in the Knights of Favonius HQ slowly opened, and a girl with blonde hair tied in pigtails and sharp-ended ears peeked outside.

"Master Jean?" Klee spoke in an uncertain tone. "Master Jean, can I leave the confinement room now?"

But Master Jean was not around.

Klee's innocent red eyes looked around in nervousness but decided to ask Master Jean personally.

Knock Knock

She knocked on the door to Jean's Office, and cautiously opened it.

"Master Jean?" she asked, but there was no one inside, something extremely rare.

So Klee knew something was up, but she needed confirmation.

"Klee, are you out again?" asked Amber with a smile.

"Yes, the 4 hours have ended" Klee replied with a sunny smile.

"Just stop trying to kill fish and you won't need to enter that room again" Amber sighed, as she knew of Klee's habit of making everything explode, and 'fish blasting' was her favourite activity.

"Where is Master Jean?" asked Klee with a curious face. "She wasn't in her office, is she okay".

"...." Amber could only realize that Jean spent so much time in her office that when she wasn't people thought of it as strange. "She left for Liyue, she will probably be back tomorrow".

"OH, I see" Klee said with a smile, and left the building under Amber's suspicious gaze.

Once she was out, her face gradually contorted. Where an expression of happiness and excitement was now only a bloodthirsty smile and a fierce look in her eyes that screamed murder stood.

"Those fucking fish are going to be cooked in their fucking home".

And Mondstadt lost all fishing activity until they managed to repopulate the lake a few months later.

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"My idiotic son is right" Mio said, pulling the hesitating Jean close to her. "You need to take a breather sometimes, one that doesn't involve walking the city looking for people to help".

"Or reading smu-"

"Okay, I will stay here today" Jean quickly replied, afraid of Mio and Yahiko discovering her hobby.

"Now that I think about it, isn't this the first time you 2 meet Guizhong?" Kenshin thought looking at his parents. "What a heresy. She is probably the person who knows you 2 the most after me".

"We have met her before? I don't remember meeting someone with that name" mused Yahiko scratching his head.

"She was a soul I-" Kenshin looked in a certain direction, and froze.

"What's wrong?" asked Jean, worried about the stunned face Kenshin was doing.

"It can't be...." Kenshin uttered with a face that besides shock didn't express anything else.

CRACK CREAK

With a cracking sound, reality gave way to the Plane Kenshin's soul was.

"W-What is this?" asked Mio, looking at the enormous green expanse with trepidation.

"Kenshin, wh-" Yahiko looked around, only to be stunned by the humongous tree that covered the whole sky with its gigantic treetop

The purple and golden leaves were gently swaying in the cool breeze bathing the whole Plane with a sense of freedom.

"Kenshin, what's wrong?" Jean already knew about Kenshin's Plane, but what worried her was the tumultuous expression Kenshin had.

But Kenshin was too focused on another thing to worry about Jean's question.

A quick count on the orbs that represented the women he had chosen to share his fate with revealed a shocking truth.

There was one orb more.

"Kenshin?" Jean said seeing Kenshin slowly approach the little orb in disbelief, but she chose to follow him.

The little orb was small, maybe only as big as a palm contrasted to the other orbs bigger than Kenshin's head.

It was so small that it flickered upon receiving the smallest of breezes yet its deep purple hue wouldn't be extinguished, as there was nothing in Kenshin's soul that would harm it.

Kenshin slowly raised his hand, in an incredulous gesture that revealed the sinking realization.

The orb didn't move away from Kenshin's hand, instead it leaned in, almost as if finding solace in being in contact with the owner of the place it found itself in.

Kenshin felt the orb upon his hand, and the warm yet needy feeling it conveyed, as if it wanted more contact with his skin.

"Kenshin, what is this place?" Mio and Yahiko regained their bearings and approached the place an emotional Kenshin was in but sensing his strange state touching a small purple orb, they fell silent as they felt that this was an intimate scene they shouldn't get involved in.

Kenshin felt the familiarity of the soul. It was calling him, and the position it appeared in was also quite revealing. 

On the lowest branch, but just under the 2 purple orbs that symbolized Ei and Makoto's souls.

"Oh" Jean covered her mouth with her hands in surprise when she realized what Kenshin had already deduced. "Kenshin....."

With a final look at the orb Kenshin now considered the most important thing in his life, the group was suddenly in Liyue again.

Ignoring the shouts of the surprised people around them, Kenshin slowly walked towards the place the person he now needed to see the most was, with a calm expression product of emotion and nervousness, trying to seek confirmation before allowing the truth to register in his brain.

Jean quickly grabbed the surprised Mio and Yahiko, and pushed them gently to follow Kenshin, feeling a bit emotional herself.

Little by little, step by step, they finally arrived at the house where all answers lay.

Knock Knock

Kenshin patiently waited, hearing steps approach.

"Who is-" Morax opened the door with his calm gaze, which quickly changed into a surprised one seeing Kenshin with trembling lips just outside.

Morax moved without saying anything, and let Kenshin enter his house, with the other 3, 2 surprised and confused and 1 biting her lips inside the house.

"And like that, Cloud Retainer picked up her broken kite and left with a put. Hah! I'm the best kite maker in Liyue" Guizhong animatedly talked, making Ei sigh and Yae softly laugh. "Morax, who was kno-"

Following Guizhong's stare, the other 2 women and 3 souls followed her gaze, only to see Kenshin with his purple eyes opened, his black hair framing his face and his usual hakama in perfect state. And yet, his trembling lips and blurry eyes were focused on Ei.

Or in her belly, where something only he could see in this world was.

The same purple orb he had seen in his Plane, the same flickering light that made him think a slight wind would snuff it, was resting.

"....." Ei looked nervously at Kenshin.

Until now, she had avoided thinking about what having a child was. She accepted that she was pregnant, but the fear of having something so precious to her being lost like what happened with her sister made her avoid thinking of what having a child meant. 

She knew she was not mother material. She wasn't that good with words, she didn't understand many things and her basic hobbies were meditating and training.

She couldn't cook, and she herself knew she was still a bit unstable after recovering her sister so suddenly. She sometimes felt like crying in the middle of the day for no reason, or anxiousness made her seek refuge in her sister's arms.

How could such a mess of a person be a good mother?

So she chose to think of her pregnancy as a fact. Something unavoidable you couldn't escape from, she will give birth and that's it, everything else would come later.

She only focused on what she felt, because she knew the moment she realized what the small life brewing inside her meant, her world would change again, and she wasn't ready for that.

But now, seeing the usually calm and confident Kenshin starts silently crying, she couldn't help but realize something.

She was carrying a child. A child she now knew would be the most important existence in her life.

So she wasn't surprised when, despite her eyes not moving away from Kenshin, she couldn't see him anymore.

But this was the first time in her life when her tears weren't shed out of despair or sadness. Only happiness and love were behind them this time.

A single hand in her belly communicated more warmth now than it had a mere minute ago.

Kenshin slowly approached, under the looks of realization of his parents, and slowly hugged the crying Ei.

"Uhhh...." Ei's soft sobs were muffled under Kenshin's arms, her hands covering her face.

Kenshini didn't speak, and only hugged Ei's convulsing little body, pressing his lips against her head.

The warmth she felt from the hug made her feel like there was someone with her in this new stage of her life, one she dreaded treading.

But feeling the warmth in her belly, she couldn't bring herself to hate it.

Kenshin was able to sense Ei's emotions, and it was only amplifying his own. But there was someone else involved in this.

In an incredible display of control over souls, he was able to bring Makoto's crying soul out and control the body at the same time as Ei.

Makoto naturally knew what happened, and promptly hugged Kenshin back, sobbing all the while.

"Kenshin..." Makoto whispered between her and her sister's sobs. "We are going to be parents".

"I know" Kenshin replied, hugging the body in his hands tightly.

CRACK

With the now familiar sound and under all the emotion coursing through his body, Kenshin pulled the whole house into his Plane, making the most powerful people stunned with the show of power.

Kenshin slowly pushed the trembling body he was hugging outside, under the great tree that so much calmness gave Ei and Makoto.

Morax, Guizhong and Yae, the most knowledgeable people, knew how much of an aberration Kenshin was to have such a great soul, but chose to stay silent and admire the landscape.

While Guizhong hugged Morax, Yae was wiping her tears, looking at the 3 people she considered family now silently hug each other, knowing that the next member was on its way.

Ei and Makoto were too emotional to care about the tree, the grass or even the colourful orbs floating around.

Except for one.

The smallest orb, that upon approaching tried to get closer.

"This is...." Makoto said, while Ei just felt like crying even with more intensity upon feeling the orb lean into her touch.

"Yes" Kenhsin confessed, and took the body's trembling hand to the orb. "This is...."

Makoto and Ei sensed the affection it seemed to emit, the same feeling they got when their hand was in their belly.

".....our child".