『Reincarnated as a Slime』Genshin Impact Fanfic

十八

                                    Akira's POV

   I carefully place the Crystal Core Xiao gifted me in my hair, remembering his kind words he didn't intend for me to hear.

  "It would look nice in your hair."

Lumine, Hu Tao, and I stand at the entrance of the funeral director's home.

  "I would say goodbye, but I always hated parting with the people I'm fond of," Hu Tao says, a smile on her features.

  "Let's meet up sometime," I propose, not liking the idea of parting for good either.

  Hu Tao let's out a small giggle and nods giddily. "Sounds good."

Lumine nervously shifts over to me and taps my shoulder to grab my attention.

"We need to leave right now for the Rite of Descension if we're to arrive on time," she worriedly says, looking back and forth between me and Hu Tao.

The funeral director waves. "When the sun is out, bathe in sunlight. But when the moon is out, bathe in the moonlight."

。。。。

We barely make it intime. We're both breathing heavily from running. Paimon finally decided to show up and is floating near Lumine's head.

Lumine starts to squeeze through the crowd, but I halt immediately. "I can't go further." My voice is small.

She tilts her head, worry in her eyes. "Are you okay?"

I can't meet her eyes, because I know what I say next will be a lie. "Yeah, just go. I'll be waiting here."

With that, she hesitantly goes to the front of the crowd, while I stand there on the brink of hyperventilating.

It's so stupid. Who would've thought, trauma from my past life still remains. I was supposed to start fresh, but I guess that can never happen.

I wrap my arms around my midsection, wishing to be somewhere else. The chatter of the crowd is all to familiar, and it sends chills down my spine.

Suddenly, the memory of my siblings screams are loud and clear in my ears. I flinch, taking a step back.

Then a sharp pain in my head follows the memory. That always happened after remembering something from the past.

This happened to me with Albedo, but he managed to get me somewhere else before I had a nervous breakdown.

But now I'm alone and scared, just wishing for someone to take my hand and tell me it's alright.

Someone taps my shoulder, making me jump. I stiffly turn.

  A man with platinum blonde hair with a streak of orange-red stands there, concern in his red eyes.

"Ma'am? Do you need assistance?" he asks kindly. "You're shaking and very pale."

  My breath catches and I force a smile. "I'm okay, just a little rattled from the excitement of this event."

He raises his hand to his ears, seemingly listening for something. Then he crosses his arms.

  "You cannot lie to the wind. It tells me you're frightened, but it is a relief you're not ill."

  Motionlessly, I stand there in surprise. "How.." my voice trails off.

  "How can I help you? I'd be glad to assist," he says, taking a step towards me.

  I sigh, swallowing my pride. "Can you..can you hold my hand?"

  His eyebrows raise, but he says nothing. Closing his eyes, he takes my hand in his. They're rough and have callouses, but they have a kind warmth to them.

  He gives my hand a comforting squeeze and says, "Who am I to deny you of mere handholding?"

  So we stand there holding hands, watching the ritual a white haired lady in the center of the crowd performs.

Once finished, a small gray tornado forms, and somethings falls down the center of it, crashing into the stone table .

I instinctively take a step closer to the man until our shoulders are pressed together.

  The dust settles, and the limp body of a dragon is visible. A soft gasp escapes me, and a collective silence falls over the crowd.

The atmosphere is tense. "He's..dead? How?" The man murmurs.

  The white haired lady finally yells, "Rex Lapis has been killed! Seal the exits!"

  Millelith run in every direction, scrambling to the gates.

Lumine is instantly by my side, a flicker of surprise and hurt present on her face when she sees my position with the man.

  "Who..?" she whispers, then rapidly shakes her head.

  "We have to go, it isn't good for me to stay here," she announces breathlessly. I pick apart her words until I discover the true meaning.

  We have to sneak out, I can't be captured.

I glance nervously to the man beside me. I drop his hand. "Go without me, I'll just slow you down," I insist.

Lumine doesn't have time to spare before the Millelith start to investigate us. That also means she doesn't have the time to argue with me about it.

"Alright, but make sure you meet up with me after," she says, her voice gentle. Her eyes linger on mine for a moment before taking off towards one of the exits.

I suddenly stiffen, remembering the man beside me. I awkwardly push a piece of hair behind my ear, thinking of what to say.

My cheeks heat up as I remember the tender moment we shared moments ago.

"It's Akira. Also thank you for helping me out," I say, eyes finding the ground,

The man purses his lips the second my name falls out of my mouth. "You must be from Inazuma, correct? In the past, I knew a few people with that name on those wretched islands."

I robotically nod, trying to seem convincing. "That's right. That means you're from there as well?"

"Yes, indeed. My own name is Kaedehara Kazuha, gifted to me many moons ago," he says, the tassel hanging off his clothes swaying in the wind.

"Also," he adds, "it's nice to know another person like me is in Liyue."

I smile, genuinely happy to hear those words, even though I'm not even there. He returns it, but his smile seems a bit sad. Just from that one gesture I can tell he's gone through a lot.

"Feel free to find me on the Crux. I'm almost always there, and it'd be a pleasure to see a new face aboard ship. I'm confident Captain Beidou wouldn't mind."

Kaedehara Kazuha' s POV

I walk away from Akira, suspicion of her washing over me.

Why would she lie about her origins?

。。。。

a/n

i get second hand embarrassment from reading my own story ngl

also i got inspired by @yuriu1409 amazing book Awaken to add kazuha to this story! u should go check it out if u haven't seen it already