Cold Steel - Inazuma Gaiden

XXIX: A Song of Ice and Fire

Visions.

Many question in the regards to their origins, or what they are to begin with. Fascinating trinkets, filled with both enigma and peculiarity yet steeped in incredible strength. Carried by Teyvat's select minority, some say that after being gazed and then graced by either the Archons or someone else greater still, they are then granted the blessings to bear a miniscule fragment of their unimaginable, monumental powers. Others hypothesized that they may just come from an even higher being still, or predetermined in one's fate right from the start - right before one is even born, by the countless constellations of stars that surrounded them during clear night skies.

From the chilling frost of Snezhnaya's very own Tsaritsa; the rarely-mentioned God of Love, the furious blaze of Natlan's God of War, the rushing currents originating from the God of Justice as she rules over the courts of Fontaine, the life-given form of nature itself commanded by Sumeru's God of Wisdom, the unshakable integrity of the earth itself - rock solid as the contracts that bind them like the ideals presented by Liyue's Lord of Geo, the sometimes gentle breeze - many times unrelenting tempests of Mondstadt's God of Freedom... and of course, the ones they're most familiar with - the dark, electrifying storm, poised to strike down any transgressors and attested to last for all eternity if need be, commanded by their very own Narukami Ogosho, a Warlord that also shares her duty as being the God of Thunder and also the one to preserve her ideals of perpetuity.

Many have differing, and at times - even contrasting theories on how these Visions manifest into one's life. Some say that they're the results of one's dreams and and desires - an individual's passions and ambitions given form after they've been noticed and subsequently judged worthy by the Gods. A few other cases showed that a Vision can just appear out of thin air in response to one's... desperation, an unbelievably powerful, last-ditch effort to reach out and cling to life that their pleas for self-preservations were heard by those who ruled over power.

On the other hand, while Kamisato Ayaka may cryptically share that her Vision was the results of her own dreams. In consideration of her past and how the piece of cold, white gem manifested into her life - perhaps the more appropriate term to describe her experience was... resolve.

Resolve.

Even as she sparred with her older brother during her slightly younger days, her mind was both clear and composed, yet at the same time - filled with the thoughts of happier times. Memories of her childhood, sharing both stories and laughter with Kamisato Kayo during one of their many shogi sessions, the wisdoms shared by the former lord of the Kamisato with his two children as the cool spring breeze flowed through the rolling green plains of Narukami Island. And as the memories flooded in, so did too some kind of... courage, determination manifest deep within.

It fortified her spirit, it strengthened her will, it powered the swing of her wooden-ken, and before she knew it - trails of ice reinforced the spine of the blunt blade and her cut struck through, disarming Kamisato Ayato of his own bokuto and it would mark the day where the once feeble Ayaka would grow into the well-known Shirasagi Himegimi as many would know today. A woman of both strength and integrity, and despite not owning any important titles like those who held the seat of the government or the mighty priests and maidens who oversee the nations' countless shrines, Kamisato Ayaka was a woman who was unmatched in her resolve.

A resolve to be a better woman than she was years ago. Nay, to be a better woman than she was yesterday, or maybe even a better woman than she was mere seconds ago. A resolve to always grow, for the sake of both her family and also the nation she grew up on. It was that resolve that likely enabled her to command the touch of frost, ironic as it is - considering she carried the strength lent to her by the Archon of their nation's invaders. And it's with that same resolve that a housed gem of pure arctic energy that reminded one of the polar regions of Snezhnaya manifested on the tip of her blade. It was her reward for growing, for being the better woman to serve Inazuma, it was the reward for her resolve.