Interrupting has its consequences

In the Great Narukami Shrine, a woman was checking some documents while a man was writing something with a complex machine, the only sounds being the noise of the buttons of the machine being pressed and the ones the cold rain outside the room was making.

"Yae, let me rub your ears" Kenshin begged to the fed-up Yae.

"For the last time Kenshin, no"

"Please, they look soft".

"If you say that one more time, my Publishing House will stop selling Radiant Knight".

"You can't scare me with that, everyone that could afford it has already bought it" 

"*Sigh*, why the sudden interest in my ears? You always knew about them, but it's only now you are showing interest in them".

"Because I can see them now" he replied looking at her.

A few months passed since the Sakoku Decree started, and money was dwindling at a breakneck pace.

But as Kenshin decided to stop worrying, he only managed the food that came into Narukami and distributed it among the poorest people, a number that was quickly growing. He didn't care about the situation in Watatsumi at all.

For Kenshin, the most important thing that happened in the past months was that his ability was getting stronger once again, the first time that it didn't require an extremely painful experience.

He was gradually being able to see the souls occupy the rest of the body. If before he only saw the soul as a static thing in the area around the chest of the person, now he saw the soul with some 'branches' that were occupying the arms and head.

What this meant is that if someone flipped him a bird, he could actually see it, not only because of the soul's orders to the body. It was a groundbreaking discovery.

It was still not perfect, things were a bit blurry, and he couldn't detect fast movements, but this gave him hope that someday he would be able to see faces once again, even if it was just the soul revealing the facial features.

But now he could 'see' Yae's ears, the fox ones, on top of her head. Maybe because they were a part of her true body, they were specially nitid in Kenshin's view. They looked fluffy, and they twitched every time Yae heard something, making Kenshin extremely curious about them.

"Kenshin, shouldn't you be worrying about the lack of money?" asked Yae wryly.

"No, why should I be worrying about it? It's not my job at all" Kenshin refused to enter again in that area. He had never felt so unhappy as the time he was working under the Shogun.

"Kenshin, you are going to need to pay attention to that sooner or later" said Yae with a sigh. It wasn't like she didn't know why Kenshin was so reluctant to enter that hole again, but she knew Kenshin wouldn't let people without food, and that required him to solve that problem.

"Then I will pay attention later" said Kenshin in a casual tone. "I won't leave people hungry, but until then I-"

"Kenshin!!" Yae and Kenshin looked toward the direction the voice was coming from, and Kenshin identified the voice as Kazuha, also noticing his desperation.

"Miyuki please, send him in" said Kenshin in a serious tone, and Miyuki appeared from the air bowing. Soon, a panting and panicking Kazuha stood before them.

"Please...help Tomoya...." Kazuha said with a desperate look.

"It took him a while to move, what has he done now" Kenshin knew that the stupid samurai was somewhat bad in the head.

"He went to challenge the Shogun" Kazuha replied, trying to recover his breathing.

"Then let him, the Shogun is extremely serious about duels. I probably will only make the situation worse" Kenshin bitterly said.

"Kenshin, please" Yae said with a faraway gaze, looking in the direction of the Tenshukaku.

"You can't be serious" said a dismayed Kenshin, knowing what Yae was talking about. He promised that he would stop Ei from doing something irreparable, and now that he thought about it, killing a suicidal guy was one of those things. But it didn't make the challenge any easier. "Dammit, I want to fondle your ears for hours after this" Kenshin said while clenching his teeth.

"Thank you" said Yae, still looking towards the Tenshukaku.

"Don't say that yet, wait for me to stop it. I will need help, by the time I arrive the Shogun will be bored, and that's saying something" said Kenshin standing up and making Kazuha's eyes lit with hope.

"Take the wind glider" said Yae finally looking at Kenshin with a serene look.

And that he did, Kenshin used the wind glider from the top of the Shrine, and that allowed him to reach the city quite fast, seeing souls allowed him to orientate himself in the air, and landing near one of those would hopefully avoid making him collide with a roof.

From his advantageous position in the air, he was able to see Tomoya fighting with an Electro user, but it wasn't the Shogun, it was Sara.

The fight seemed to be a tie, but Kenshin knew Sara would win in the end. He had been with her for years, and he probably knew her better than even her own adoptive father. She was not using his tengu powers, and yet the battle was stalled, which meant that she could end the fight at any moment.

'I think I will write something about her too' Kenshin thought fondly. There was only one reason Sara hadn't ended the fight yet, she knew he would come.

They had spent all Saturdays talking at night, and their bond deepened, so Sara knew a lot more things about Kenshin and vice-versa. One of the things Kenshin had confessed to Sara was his fear of something like this happening.

The Shogun's image was at an all-time low after she approved those Decrees. Of course, the people still venerated her, but not as fervently, and killing someone, duel or not, would make people scared. Something they couldn't afford.

Kenshin finally arrived at the scene and sensed how tired Tomoya was, while Sara was not.

Sara saw Kenshin and promptly ended the fight using her bloodline powers for a few seconds, that was enough for Tomoya to have an opening Sara used to end the fight.

"The winner is Kujou Sara" said the Shogun, and started walking towards Tomoya, who had an .....excited smile?

"Let me see the lightning's brilliance" he said, and stood on guard, but the Shogun didn't seem to care. "--!!!!".

Kenshin had walked towards him and kicked him in the balls, making him fall to the floor with his hands on his crotch.

"What lightning's brilliance, the only thing you will get is an express ticket to see Kazuha's parents" Kenshin disdainfully said, and when he looked straight, he saw a not-so-pleased Ei.

"Kenshin, a duel is not something you can intrude upon. Move" Kenshin sensed her seriousness, and realized that she wouldn't stop, no matter what his relationship with Yae was.

"Of course not, I just wanted to know if the duel specified that death would be the fate of the loser" said a nervous Kenshin, facing the soul of an Archon who decided to spill someone's blood today.

"Yes" she said, and she was almost in front of Kenshin, who was kicking Tomoya again and again in his mind.

"Humm, well, don't you think we should let the winner decide? You only stood there watching after all" said a sweating Kenshin. Things were getting quite bad.

"..." the Shogun stopped at that. 'Maybe he has a point. Even in my time, the loser's fate was decided by the victor'.

"Then, General, speak your will" she said and turned to face Sara who spoke resolutely.

"I will follow the Shogun until the end" she said with conviction in her voice. "But if I'm asked personally, I think that killing that man will only harm Inazuma".

'Thank you Sara, I will give you whatever you ask for. Even a book full of praise towards your wings' Kenshin felt his appreciation for Sara soar at this moment.

"Are you saying that despite the fact that this man opposed my will?" said the Shogun looking directly at Sara.

"I think he should be punished, he defied your orders after all, but killing him is not the only way. Maybe imprisoning him or making him work for us would be a more productive resolution" Sara said with determination in her voice.

"You will decide his punishment then, you won the duel after all" was all the Shogun said before turning to Kenshin, who got nervous receiving her attention once again, but this time the Shogun was focused on his, not the defeated Tomoya.

"You will need to be punished too. You interrupted an official duel" Ei said to the nervous Kenshin, regretting having come.

"Just don't kill me please" he said.

Ei didn't answer, just kept approaching Kenshin, but he realized that Ei wasn't planning on killing him. She stopped right in front of him, and Kenshin could faintly appreciate her facial features, she was really pretty after all, but this was not the moment to get lost in thought.

"You will start working again under me" she said. "Or you can request a duel".

"You must be kidding right?" asked Kenshin in a disbelieving tone.

"Not at all" replied Ei, looking straight at him and waiting for his decision.

"Have you forgotten that I'm blind? And who am I supposed to fight?" asked Kenshin in an incredulous voice.

"You will fight me" Ei doomed Kenshin instantly and without mercy. "You interrupted a duel I was the judge of, and you did that despite your blindness, so you will have to suffer the consequences no matter the risk."

"That....is fair" Kenshin could only nod. He in fact appreciated that in her eyes his blindness was not considered a weakness. He could sense Sara's anxiety, so he decided to do the obvious and take the job. "Aw man, just after telling Yae I wouldn't work in that place again....".

"What will you choose" said Ei in a firm voice. The only reason he spared Kenshin was because she needed him right now to help Inazuma. No matter how close he was with Yae, interrupting a sacred duel was something she wasn't going to allow.

"I will take the job....at least I can see Sara more often" Kenshin muttered, feeling depressed as he didn't want to spend hours inside that place listening to bullshit.

"Then I will wait for you tomorrow" Ei said and got into the Tenshukaku.

"What have you done?!" said an indignant Tomoya.

Kenshin just kicked him again in the area he was faintly able to see, his head.

"You fucker, I know that in your head you are following your samurai code or whatever shit you believe in, but have you thought about how your actions will affect the rest of us?! The army will now have the chance to start controlling the citizens seeing that there are dissidents, and you even dared to use your Vision here!" Kenshin shouted and kicked the exhausted Tomoya again.

"Perfect, Kazuha, take that fucker out of here" Kenshin saw Kazuha watching nervously and with a kick, he sent Tomoya rolling on the floor towards him.

Kazuha nodded and took the unconscious Tomoya out of the town, and he headed toward Ritou.

"Kenshin" Sara approached him with a cold expression. "Do you know how dangerous that was?".

"I do now" muttered Kenshin. He didn't expect Ei to consider killing him for merely interrupting. Just as Ei couldn't understand a lot of things, Kenshin couldn't understand how sacred Ei considered duels to be.

"I tried to help you out of friendship, but I won't do this again" affirmed Sara looking with a sharp gaze at Kenshin. She knew he would be able to see how serious she was. "I don't think that his death is an error, he defied the Shogun to her face, and acknowledged the dangers by his own will. Death was only the expected thing, and he was somehow even excited for it".

"I know" Kenshin said, looking chastised. "It was never about him, I couldn't care less of his suicidal ass".

Sara looked confused hearing that. If he didn't care, why had he risked his life?

But Sara wasn't the General for anything, she quickly looked towards the Shrine with a cold look.

"Kenshin, you should start thinking a bit more about your actions. I would hate to see you killed because you are trying to fulfil someone's else wish" Sara coldly said before leaving, and Kenshin could feel her anger.

"Hahh, what a shitty day" he said before walking back, ignoring the cold rain.

After half an hour of traveling, he finally arrived at the Shrine. He went to have a warm shower, but he saw Yae sitting outside, in the rain, feeling sad and regretful.

"Hey, foxy girl what's wrong?" Kenshin asked while sitting near her, knowing that he would probably catch a cold by tomorrow.

"I'm sorry Kenshin" Yae answered with a sad tone.

"It's okay" replied Kenshin, looking at the Tenshukaku barely visible under the rain. "I promised you after all".

Yae didn't answer, just stood there looking vacantly at the place her friend was in. After a while, she finally spoke again.

"I put your life at risk only to keep a way out for another friend, that is not something I should do" she said in a quiet voice. "But I don't know what to do". It was the first time Kenshin saw her in such a vulnerable state.

Yae had been best friends with Ei 500 years ago, and they were close enough that Yae was Ei's familiar, a companion who would never turn her back on her.

But tragedy struck and Ei's sister and the original Electro Archon, Makoto, died.

Ei wasn't able to overcome the loss of her sister without understanding exactly why she died but tried to protect Inazuma.

But all her friends died shortly after of different causes, leaving her mostly alone, and she wasn't able to manage all that sadness.

And even then, after losing almost everything, she still tried to protect Inazuma alone, killing anyone who may pose a threat to Inazuma. She saw some of her friends lose their sanity for various reasons and realized that it could happen to her too, and nobody would be able to stop her from destroying Inazuma, the treasure her sister died to protect.

So she did all she could to protect the sanity she had left. She built a construct that would govern Inazuma in her place while she meditated, trying to delay the effect of the Erosion to protect Inazuma from herself.

But she was not the wise ruler her sister was. Ei was her sister's protector, a fighter, a general. And her sister was the one who could unite people under her, she was wise, charming and understood people's hearts.

They had different roles and different personalities, and as such Makoto wasn't strong in a fight, while Ei was not a good ruler.

The result is the actual state of Inazuma, full of corrupt politicians, and criminals in the form of Fatui and Ronin wandering freely, a half-abandoned nation with a civil war happening.

Was it Ei's fault? Definitely not, at least not fully, she was always trying to fight for Inazuma but she couldn't find the way. And even if she messed up BIG time, she had still been trying to help Inazuma, it's not like she wanted her people to suffer, even if that had been the result.

Was it Yae's fault for not beating some common sense into Ei's skull? Definitely not, she did what she could to help, as Kenshin himself had been able to see. The Shrine was helping distribute the food fairly and doing everything it could to obtain proof of the corruption running rampant.

Was it Kenshin's fault? Definitely not, he was doing far more of what was expected of him, but he couldn't do anything about the root cause as Ei's stubbornness was a wall he couldn't overcome.

Kenshin stood silent, thinking about the current state of Inazuma, but he couldn't find the way.

"Don't worry about it" he said to Yae. "We will figure a way out of this".

Yae thankfully nodded, and following her impulse, she moved to his side and rested her head on his shoulder.

Kenshin didn't say anything, but put his arm over Yae's shoulder, moving her closer. And the 2 stood like that for a while, under the cold rain that made a thought appear in Kenshin's mind.

"I'm sure that if I could see, I would be witnessing something quite amazing right now" said Kenshin with a calm voice.

The miko's clothing wasn't exactly thick, it was in fact quite thin and light. Yae's was even more revealing than that of a normal miko, so Kenshin was sure that under the cold rain, Yae would look quite hot.

"Indeed, it's a work of art you are not going to see" Yae lightly smiled.

Under the rain, while Kenshin was too distracted thinking about their current situation, the purple spots in Yae's soul started spreading.

But no one noticed.