"Oh my, if it isn't the Shogun herself, what are you doing here? Oh my ~ why did you even change your clothes?"
Fu Li could feel Yae Miko approaching from behind. The seductive and cunning voice seemed to have a piercing quality that made Fu Li's cheeks burn involuntarily. Seduction arts—this was sorcery! If not for the sufficient natural resistance of a God's physical body, she would likely have been completely bewitched by now.
Fearing exposure, Fu Li dared not answer. She maintained her silence and hurried away, pretending to be the Raiden Shogun without self-awareness. But she could sense Miko following right behind her, apparently with no intention of letting her go. Panic welled up inside Fu Li, but she could only put on a calm facade. Before she knew it, they were far away from Konda Village.
Miko seemed to sense the time was right, and with a bewitching look, she wrapped her arms around Fu Li's waist from behind. *Well, I'm done for,* thought Fu Li. That silky pink hair rubbed right against her cheek, accompanied by the unique seductive aura and fragrance of a fox spirit. Fu Li exerted every ounce of her strength just to keep her breathing from becoming ragged.
"This body is the most supreme and noble in all this mortal world..."
*Damn it, I mixed up the Shogun's voice lines with Ei's.*
Miko's extremely alluring eyes on her shoulder gradually revealed a hint of playful amusement. She had already confirmed something.
"Tsk tsk tsk, how very sly. Even your scent is the same; my, the Guuji almost couldn't tell you apart ~ But... in the end, you're just a fake!"
The next second, a bolt of heavenly lightning struck down from the sky. Fu Li's heart skipped a beat. So she had been found out all along! But Miko grabbed her and kept her pinned in place, unable to dodge. Miko's gaze was clearly that of someone looking at a dead person, preparing to watch this impostor be turned to ash in the lightning of the Heavenly Kitsune.
Yet the next second, an expression of astonishment crossed Miko's face. That bolt of kitsune lightning did not reduce the impostor to ashes as Miko had anticipated; instead, it was completely blocked by a barrier of Electro surrounding Fu Li, just as if she were the real Shogun herself.
"You... how do you have an aura identical to Ei's!"
*Fine, the charade is over.* Fu Li slowly pried Miko's arms away from her waist. Her expression grew visibly gloomy by the second, instantly transforming into a menacing brawler. She pressed her index and middle fingers together like a double-barreled shotgun and poked Miko right on the forehead, instantly raising a bun-sized bump on the latter's head.
"Have I been spoiling you too much lately, Aminos?!"
Yae Miko clutched the large bump on her head, her expression shifting slightly. When had she ever witnessed such terrifying mental attack? Of the thirty-six stratagems, running away is the best. Miko gathered Electro energy around herself, preparing to slip away, but her opponent gave her no chance to cast her spell. With a sweeping low kick, Fu Li sent her face-first into the dirt.
"I'm taking your Gohei too, let's see what you do now!"
The Gohei on the ground was snatched away in an instant. Before Miko could react, Fu Li grabbed her clothes with one hand and caught her pitiable thigh with the other, aiming her straight toward the distant Mt. Yougou.
One, ready.
Two, aim...
Three, charge up...
Four, launch!
That day, everyone witnessed a pink shooting star soar toward Mt. Yougou, and seemed to faintly hear Yae Miko's miserable screams.
Resources are scarce, bureaucrats run rampant—is this the era of the Sakoku Decree? Perhaps it is...
In an island nation like Inazuma where resources cannot independently circulate, even the most basic food is difficult to produce self-sufficiently, making it already scarce in provisions. Add to that wave after wave of ruling elites stripping the common people of their wealth... Speaking of which, how long has the Sakoku Decree been enforced now...?
"Judging by Yae Miko's words... there seems to be a real Shogun in Tenshukaku. Time to slip away, it'll be awkward if I run into the real one... What the hell, you've got to be kidding me!"
Just as Fu Li was preparing to leave the area, she locked eyes with Raiden Ei coming up from behind. The fake met the genuine article!
Fu Li tried her best to squeeze out a gentle smile and waved at her. Seeing the figure she had longed for day and night, the expression on Ei's face twitched uncontrollably. Her eyes gradually grew misty, filled with an urgent desire to pull the figure of her dreams into her embrace.
"Sister... I... This time, I will surely protect—Hm?!"
Ei's movement of reaching out to embrace her suddenly halted dead in her tracks. She abruptly sensed that the other's aura wasn't quite right.
Although Ei and Makoto's auras were extremely similar, they were ultimately not completely identical. Yet the person before her not only shared an aura completely identical to her own, but it was even purer, like a newly born God. But no new gods had been born in this world for a long time, leaving only one possibility: someone was impersonating her.
Raiden Ei's gaze instantly returned to icy detachment, and waves of chilling killing intent dispersed without reservation. Fu Li sensed trouble and instinctively took a few steps back to try and widen the distance. Purple arcs of lightning danced across Ei's body like flowing threads. The tear tracks on her face were instantly evaporated, and an Engulfing Lightning materialized in her hand amidst a purple glow, launching an attack with lightning speed.
"Ah wait... don't... what is going on here!"
Faced with a descending slash of the Engulfing Lightning, Fu Li, caught in utter bewilderment, felt her body react swiftly as if through muscle memory. A flash of lightning streaked by, and an Engulfing Lightning identical to her opponent's instantly appeared in her own hands, taking Raiden Ei's strike head-on.
"Clang!"
Weapons clashed, and the explosive roar of metal on metal made the surrounding air vibrate. Two massive forces met in a head-on collision, and instantly, thousands of scorching sparks flew in all directions, illuminating the surroundings as bright as snow.
Amidst the clashing thunder, Raiden Ei wore a look of astonishment. Far from being beaten into a disadvantage by this blow, Fu Li's pushing spear actually began to subtly force Raiden Ei backward.
"Such immense strength..."
In an instant, dark clouds gathered across the sky with flashes of lightning and rolling thunder. At the center of the two, two massive energies collided with each other, producing a deafening roar and blinding lightning, accompanied by a teeth-setting screech of grinding metal. Ei was actually forced back several steps.
"Excessive strength, but... lacking in technique!"
Realizing her opponent's weakness, Raiden Ei quickly shifted her combat style, swinging her Engulfing Lightning to leave trails of afterimages. Her subsequent attacks grew more fierce each time, and the gap between the two gradually widened. Apart from barely parrying, Fu Li had almost no room to counterattack, taking a continuous beating that forced her back step by step. Within just a few rounds, the latter had even sustained injuries.
This was completely different from the Raiden Shogun in the game. The game's Shogun only possessed rigid, stereotyped attack patterns, whereas the real Shogun repeated no moves whatsoever.
Seeing that her opponent had yet to fall, Ei's expression gradually tightened. Simple physical attacks were no longer enough for her; the rising fighting spirit caused the Electro energy around her to concentrate to the point where it could be drawn into threads in the air.
"Everyone, get back!"
Mindful of hurting the few villagers who had been drawn here by the noise, Fu Li instinctively shouted out.
Seeing two Raiden Shoguns at the same time, the villagers' worldview received a severe shock, and they all stood frozen in place. Raiden Ei also instinctively held back some of her strength; though stubborn, she was unwilling to see her own people get hurt.
Taking advantage of this, Fu Li increased her force, using a half-moon thunder slash to force Raiden Ei back and interrupt her opponent's skill. Ei paused for a moment, purple light beginning to flicker in her eyes, and a fractured space appeared, sweeping toward Fu Li.
She was all too familiar with this plot. If you don't run now, when will you?!
Fu Li turned and bolted, but unfortunately, this skill was lock-on. The next second, a sheet of darkness washed over her.
The surrounding scenery instantly grew blurry. Finally, the sky turned crimson. When the surrounding view cleared up once more, the arena had changed to the Plane of Euthymia.
In the center of the Plane of Euthymia, a figure hovered, sitting cross-legged on one leg. Although she had experienced such a scene in the game, experiencing it in person made it a lie to say she wasn't panicking.
"Your body and this body are so similar, it's uncanny... Though you have hindered Eternity, I will still offer you two choices..."
Ei stopped hovering and landed back on the ground, gripping the Musou Isshin tightly as she walked toward Fu Li. Looking at this figure so remarkably similar to her sister, her heart unexpectedly stirred with a trace of anticipation.
"Join my ranks, assist by my side, and build Inazuma's Eternity together—or become the enemy of Eternity!"
"No, I refuse!"
Fu Li hesitated for a moment, but still raised her Engulfing Lightning, standing in opposition to Raiden Ei. Of course she couldn't say she had transmigrated. Putting aside whether she'd be believed, if the Gnosis was still with Ei during this timeframe, the deity up in the sky would probably kill her within three days and scatter her ashes to the winds.
"Hmph, Eternity? You lock yourself away and remain complacent, and that's supposed to be Eternity? As foolish as an ostrich burying its head in the sand and thinking itself invincible.
And you now, cowering here in this Plane of Euthymia—can't you make some changes?"
Ei looked utterly shocked. She stood in place for a long time before finally managing to ask:
"How do you know these things? Are you someone sent by the Heavenly Principles?!"
Seeing Ei's astonished expression, Fu Li couldn't help but let her crooked thoughts wander. If they actually fought, she was definitely no match for Ei. She might as well take a page out of the Anemo Archon's book of grand swindles.
"Tsk tsk tsk, guessed wrong. Let me tell you the answer instead, but it's a tragic one—I come from you. I am you, the human side of you, the side of yourself that you loathe."
Fu Li's acting was so poor it almost fooled herself, but Ei was naturally taken in hook, line, and sinker. The fact that Fu's aura was identical to her own suddenly made complete sense.
"What do you know? Since you are unwilling—you are merely a personality, utterly worthless in the face of Eternity. Then leave your physical body behind."
"Hey, hey, hey! Wait... you're actually swinging?! You don't even spare yourself!"
The Musou Isshin in Ei's hand flashed with a blinding radiance. Countless bolts of lightning flowed through the air, gathering on the blade. A giant blade dozens of meters long slashed like a light cutting through the darkness. Under the overwhelming pressure, the surrounding air instantly grew as viscous as glue. The Raiden Shonun at this time was not yet a god bearing the wishes of her people, so what she wielded was naturally the Musou no Hitotachi, not the Musou Isshin.
"Ini Shiyu, Totsukunai!"
Fu Li panicked, hastily raising her blade to meet the attack. She had thought that by wearing the mask of formerly being a single entity, Ei might hold back a little and soften her stance. But that calculation completely backfired—her opponent was genuinely going to kill her.
The Musou no Hitotachi before her was about to fall, breathtakingly heavy like a collapsing skyscraper. Unexpectedly, in that exact instant, she seemed to comprehend something.
Thus, following her intuition, Fu Li gripped the hilt with one hand and pinched the blade of the Engulfing Lightning with the other, her fingers slowly grazing both sides of the edge. Purple lightning danced across the blade where she touched.
"Cold and peerless crescent moon (wrong scene), thunder with the force of ten thousand armies!"
Fu Li abruptly raised the Engulfing Lightning toward the sky. In an instant, countless bolts of lightning plummeted from above, coating the blade of the Engulfing Lightning in a massive layer of thunder energy. Its momentum matched the opponent's Musou no Hitotachi blow for blow, and the next second, with a piercing whistle that tore through the air, it collided head-on with the Musou no Hitotachi.
Raiden Ei's purple eyes widened as if she had seen a ghost. An aura could be copied, but this Musou no Hitotachi was fundamentally something that could not be imitated. Yet she quickly regained her composure and increased the force in her hands.
As the two mighty powers clashed, cataclysmic sounds erupted within the Plane of Euthymia. Massive energy fluctuations spread outward like a flash flood, causing the ground of the realm to crack under the wash of this power.
At this moment, the heavens and earth changed color, fierce winds howled, and lightning flashed. This was a battle between God-level beings; even the shockwaves of the fight were enough to cause mountains to collapse and the earth to split nearby.
With a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering roar, Fu Li was sent flying backward, slamming hard into the ground and skidding against the earth for a hundred meters before finally coming to a stop.
"Ugh... screw this, I can't win..."
Fu Li stood up with difficulty, leaning on the hilt of her blade, and felt a warm sensation across her stomach.
Ei was not one to let up while she had the advantage. The Musou Isshin once more wrapped itself in blinding electric light, stabbing toward Fu Li with unstoppable momentum.
In Fu Li's startled gaze, Raiden Ei's figure instantly flashed right before her eyes at a speed invisible to the naked eye.
The close-range disadvantage of polearm weapons was exposed without a doubt. Fu Li could only grip her Engulfing Lightning and launch a desperate counterattack against her opponent. Two flashes of lightning crossed paths, and then the two stood back-to-back, the scene plunging into an eerie silence.
"Cough, cough..."
Fu Li couldn't hold it in any longer, coughing up a mouthful of blood and collapsing to her knees before Ei. In that split second just now, she had taken a full three stabs to her body, each one piercing clean through. Meanwhile, Ei glanced indifferently at her slashed shoulder, twirled the Musou Isshin into a flourish before holding it in her hand, while the wound on her shoulder healed at a visible speed.
Unless she forcibly turned on cheats, how could anyone transmigrate as the Raiden Shogun and fight Ei to a draw? Which of the Seven Archons wasn't tempered in mountains of corpses and seas of blood? How could a mere shut-in anime fan hope to rival one?
Feeling the burning, chronic pain, Fu Li felt like crying without tears. Other people's transmigration starts them off either invincible or backed by a system; she, on the other hand, got a hatred meter right upon arrival—stabbed on first meeting, and another stab away from dying.
Ei did not deliver a finishing blow, instead looking with curiosity at Fu Li, who appeared unable to stand. Although she knew the other wasn't her sister, seeing that face she thought of day and night still left her mind dazed for a fleeting moment.
Snap!
A blinding light flashed. Ei instinctively raised a hand to block the glare. Fu Li had launched an attack from another world: a camera flash!
"Look yo, your soul is in my hands now! Just flick a finger and you'll scatter to the winds!"
Fu Li confidently brandished her phone, flashing the photo in front of Ei's eyes. How could this country bumpkin withstand such a trick, seeing a motionless version of herself trapped inside the device? Her pupils dilated, and she quickly closed her eyes to concentrate, preparing to ward off this soul-level blow, dropping the Musou Isshin right onto the ground.
Good opportunity!
Fu Li quickly lunged toward the nearby Musou Isshin. This was her only chance to leave this place, but Ei's reaction speed was faster than she expected. With a hook of her foot, the Musou Isshin was back in Raiden Ei's hand once more, the blade wreathed in chilling lightning.
Amidst the flashing lightning, Fu Li felt as though she had already seen herself turned into a sieve. The Ei in other fanfiction was charming, tsundere, and affectionate with maxed-out favorability, while the Ei she ran into was overflowing with killing intent and icy coldness.
Thinking of this, a surge of resentment welled up inside Fu Li. *Since you're heartless, don't blame me for being perverted.* A wildly bold idea popped into Fu Li's mind.
Fu Li mustered every last ounce of her aching body and lunged toward Ei. The latter apparently had no intention of dodging at all.
"It matters not, your fate is sealed..."
Ei merely regarded the other's action as a futile, dying struggle. But before she could finish speaking, her lips were blocked by a sudden softness. In that instant, a unique fragrance resembling bitter orange blossoms rushed straight into Fu Li's nasal cavity. Fragrant—it was simply too fragrant...
Ei seemed stunned as well, the other possessing the exact same bitter orange blossom scent as herself. It took her a long time to snap back to her senses.
"You... impudent!"
An uncharacteristically flustered expression appeared on Ei's icy face. She shoved the other away with a backhand, hastily wiping her mouth.
"(Looking at her empty hands)... Give my Makoto back to me!"
By the time Ei realized the Musou Isshin in her hand had been swiped away by Fu Li, she was instantly overcome with rage. Her slightly flushed cheeks turned instantly purple as she whirled around, drew her Engulfing Lightning, and slashed downward through the empty air. A wave of lightning swept forth with the force to cleave mountains and split seas.
Fu Li did not dare slack off. Wielding the Musou Isshin, she slashed a single stroke toward the space ahead. Instantly, a pitch-black rift opened up, but it was too late—the incoming lightning wave followed close behind, striking squarely into the back of Fu Li as she prepared to dive into the rift, blasting her straight into the fissure.
The rift vanished in an instant, leaving Raiden Ei standing blankly in place, the expression on her face twitching uncontrollably. The moment she lost the Musou Isshin, she felt as though she had been reduced to a mere mortal. All the emotions she had pent up inside rushed forth like a breached river, turning into two streams of tears that fell from the corners of her eyes as the Plane of Euthymia slowly collapsed and faded away.
"...The Musou Isshin actually chose her... Sister... Could it be that I was really wrong..."