mania! ➺ tartaglia

five.

A few weeks had passed since your little outing with Childe, and you couldn't have helped but want to relive the experience.

It was actually fun, even though the two of you had done simple things like eat and walk around the market place.

You'd missed it for once, and that was a strange occurrence for you as you usually didn't miss many things.

Since then, the two of you had only spoken briefly, but that didn't bug you as much as you thought it would have. He was busy and had things to do, and you..

You were busy too.

You were going to start asking around about the double vision. It was time to learn the truth about some things, as it would only help you more in the future. That's what you told yourself, at least.

The morning you woke up bright and early, was the moment you would look around for that blonde woman and her floating companion. It hadn't occurred to you right away, but you had soon realised that this same woman was the famous traveller, who'd slain a dragon and many other beasts. You weren't sure if this was the truth, but you had heard talk around Inazuma about her.

You were aware that you were going to have some difficulties trying to locate her, as she was constantly out and about, but when you started to ask around the streets of Liyue, you found yourself walking right into her, and a familiar man that you hadn't seen in a while.

"Ah, Y/n. Pleasure to see you again,"

"Hello Zhongli, and..."

"Lumine."

"And I'm Paimon!"

You gave the small group a smile and walked alongside them, mostly keeping to yourself as Zhongli had been the one leading the conversation.

As much as you appreciated the man and his endless stories, you wanted to get the traveller alone. Of course, you would ask the man about what he knew later on, but right now, you solely needed Lumine. You were almost positive she knew something; she had to.

Taking the opportunity of Zhongli having given her and her little helper a task, you decided to tag alongside her, attempting to get to know her a little better before asking her about what she knew.

"So.. You're trying to find your brother?" You asked, watching as Paimon nodded her head eagerly before looking at the woman who seemed to sulk a little.

It was clear that it had been a long time since she'd last seen him. You almost felt bad.

"And you don't possess a vision either.. How is that?" You continued, attempting to steer the topic towards visions right before your voice had attracted the attention of a few hilichurls, and a blazing axe mitachurl. You internally groaned and summoned your polearm. Lumine did the same.

"Well, I'll leave this fighting to you guys!" Paimon exclaimed, eyes wide as you charged towards the first mitachurl without hesitating, while Lumine got rid of the hilichurls who were cornering you both.

You barely had to summon your pyro abilities, and with two normal attacks, the mitachurl had fallen to his knees and disappeared.

The rush of combat had always been so interesting to you, as it made you feel alive. You'd cleared hilichurl camps and taken on various ruin guards at once on your way to Liyue without breaking a sweat; fighting is what you were born to do.

You let out a heavy sigh and looked back to the shorter girl who eyed you cautiously.

"You're a really good fighter," She said, giving you a smile, in which you returned.