At Narukami Shrine, cherry blossoms drifted gently down, blowing through a window on the breeze of the evening glow, though the vermilion figure working furiously inside had no time to appreciate the view.
Due to the Sakoku Decree, the allocation of supplies in Inazuma was severely strained, and the figures on the checklist even needed to be precise to three decimal places.
(The young girl is muttering curses...)
Not even a day since crossing over, and I'm already not my own master. Though come to think of it, that's not entirely a bad thing—at least... this is completely terrible! Does this scummy fox really intend to use me as a tool, making me go single-handedly fight the Raiden Shogun?
No way. Play is play, and joking is joking, but you can't gamble with your life.
Ah, I have an idea! I'll take Beelzebub's form, run over to Liyue to curse out Morax, and shift the blame so Morax crushes the Raiden Shogun. Once they've beaten each other to a pulp, I'll step in and reap the rewards... Hahahaha!
After checking the final list, Fu let out a long breath of relief, her absent red pupils regaining their sharp, vibrant spark. The energy consumption of this workload was negligible for a God's body, but who would want to sit at this desk for seven or eight hours? Besides, maintaining a transformation also required mental focus.
A God's body recovers fast; after a few hours, the pain from her injuries was gone—though of course, Ei holding back somewhat had been a factor.
Her memories of the Narukami style swordsmanship were coming back to her; now it seemed she only needed to build up her muscle memory.
Pulling out her phone to take a look, the time matched the scenery outside. The screen read five in the evening, and the sunset was indeed sinking outside.
To her surprise, the phone's battery seemed locked at 100% and hadn't budged at all.
Seeing no one around, a restless urge gradually stirred within her, and her slender little hands began wandering mischievously toward the hem of her skirt.
Seriously, up until now, she hadn't even checked what it felt like~~
"What is the little one busy with?"
Yae Miko's voice came out of nowhere. As expected of a fox immortal—no, a fox demon—who could even play tricks on Ei, she had appeared at the door without a sound.
Startled, Fu gave a soft shudder and hastily pulled her hand back, accidentally reverting to her true form for a split second. The Musou Isshin leaning against the desk was knocked over to the floor with a clatter.
In less than half a second, the scummy fox materialized right behind her, a pair of boneless, soft hands sliding slowly down Fu's shoulders and trailing lightly along both sides of her body.
"My, my, your face is all flushed. Are you lonely? Shall big sis keep you company?"
The lazy, alluring voice was like a cat scratching at her heart, stirring up a restless turmoil inside Fu.
"555~ No, no, I'm not!"
Yae Miko's lips curled up slightly as she looked with a complicated gaze at the head-shaking, charm-resisting Raiden Fu, feeling as though she were looking at a certain friend who liked to roll around on the ground.
"Hahaha, I won't tease you anymore. Big sis will teach you a good trick, depending on whether you can learn it."
"Really?! Really?!"
"I certainly wouldn't lie to you!"
Three minutes later, Fu returned to her original form and cautiously thrust the elementalized Musou Isshin straight toward that tightly wrapped pair of peaks, and it actually went right in!
She had long wondered how such a long sword in the story could be put away; so it was elementalized before being stowed, and only materialized when drawn.
Yae Miko stared straight at Fu, wishing she could see right through the other's background, but unfortunately, the other's soul seemed covered by a layer of gauze, remaining completely hazy no matter how hard she looked.
She noticed that the clothes Fu was wearing—riddled with holes everywhere—seemed somewhat familiar.
It seemed like something from an ancient book... This tightly wrapped style of attire was worn by Beelzebub's hatamoto thousands of years ago...
Then Yae Miko quietly pulled back her clothes to take a look at the Gnosis hidden against her chest; it was pulsing with purple light in a steady rhythm.
"The Gnosis only reacts to the true Electro Archon. If that's really the case, how interesting..."
Fu patted her chest, feeling no foreign objects, and then tried drawing the sword from her chest. A voice seemed to ring out in her mind—I will weld you into a statue!
"Hey, catch!"
A set of purple clothes was tossed over by Yae Miko and caught in Fu's hands.
Fu: "???"
Miko: "Go change. It wouldn't do for people to see the esteemed Raiden Shogun looking all tattered."
Fu: "Er— (spreading the clothes) Are these the Raiden Shogun's imperial robes?... Isn't the chest area a bit too... spacious..."
Miko: "Then change into this? (taking out a strip of white cloth)"
Fu: "Uh... (looking down at her own hole-ridden clothes) I think I'll wear this one after all..."
Once the room's door was shut, Fu blushed as she unlaced the monotonously colored purple kimono, which had almost no adornments whatsoever. Yet when she peeled off the final layer of close-fitting undergarments that carried the faint scent of blood, she still couldn't help deepening her breathing.
Don't be nervous, it's your own body anyway... It's your own, why are you blushing like a teapot...
Thirty minutes later, the imperial robes fit Fu's body to absolute perfection, suiting her completely.
While comforting herself internally, she used her phone to snap a selfie, straightened the fan and hairpiece on top of her head, and mustered the courage to step out of the room.
"Oh my~ It's an exact match! Any interest in sitting on the Shogun's throne for a couple of days?"
Yae Miko wore a meaningful smile as she looked at the face opposite her—one she couldn't possibly refuse.
After changing into the clothes, if one didn't pierce through the soul with X-ray vision, Yae Miko felt that both the aura and appearance of the person before her made her an unmasked, genuine Raiden Ei.
"...No, please don't, I haven't lived enough yet."
Fu gave a shudder and slipped back into Reimu's persona.
"Sitting there for half a day was suffocating me. I'm going out for a stroll!"
Saying she was going for a stroll was a lie; she simply wanted to see how bad this worst nation of the seven was, so she could ruthlessly mock Beelzebub later.
(Hahahahaha, you're old, you're useless, you belong in the scrap heap, Beelzebub!)
"Oh? You're in high spirits. Have fun."
Watching Fu's departing back, Yae Miko suddenly turned serious:
"Leaving her here was indeed the right choice."
In the world of Teyvat, a nation's god and military might naturally represent its facade, but during the Cataclysm, Inazuma's primary combat strength had been mostly wiped out. The sole remaining pillar of strength—Raiden Ei—was also holing herself up inside the Plane of Euthymia, deaf to the world outside.
Only Yae Miko, a mere century-old fox immortal, was barely propping up Inazuma's administration to keep it from descending into total chaos, yet she still struggled to sustain Inazuma's fragile diplomatic relations.
At this thought, Yae Miko felt a pang of sorrow. For that friend of hers, Yae Miko had tried every possible means to dissuade her, but it was like a stone sinking into the sea, having no effect at all.
Fu was a strange God, devoid of the arrogance and conceit natural to Gods; she seemed much more like a human, and her temper wasn't bad either—even though Yae Miko had ambushed her earlier, she had only retaliated symbolically.
Although Yae Miko was always sarcastic, she was also a person with self-awareness. No, a great yokai.
If she had previously ambushed a hot-tempered God instead... Yae Miko shuddered at the thought, a bead of cold sweat appearing on her brow.
Suddenly, a shrine maiden came running over in a panic:
"Terrible news! Lady Kamugun, a group of Kairagi suddenly appeared at the foot of the mountain! They've kidnapped several shrine maidens and are demanding fifty million Mora for their release..."
"*(Yawning)* No need to panic, someone will take care of them."
Yae Miko leisurely stretched, moved the stack of processed paperwork piled high on Fu's desk over to her own, and then pulled out a dish of fried tofu, slowly savoring it.
At the foot of Mount Yogou, several big, burly men in red armor were gathered around a campfire, gorging themselves on a strange, miscellaneous stew bubbling in a pot.
"Why hasn't the money delivery arrived yet?!"
"Then we can't be blamed for what happens."
A red-armored Kairagi let out a burp and cast a lecherous gaze at the four shrine maidens who had been tightly bound and tossed aside.
While not breathtaking beauties, compared to the copy-pasted character models in the game, the real-life shrine maidens of Narukami Shrine were all delicate-featured and quite pleasing to the eye.
"They say shrine maidens are the wives of the god. If we toy with them, would that count as slapping the god in the face?"
"Hmph, so what if it is? Can the god they worship personally come save them? Right now! Here, we call the shots!"
The shrine maidens shivered with fright, but with their mouths gagged, they couldn't make a sound. They could only frantically wriggle their bodies, trying to stay away from these morally bankrupt scumbags.
Suddenly, an untimely, arrogant singing voice drifted over:
"Over the mountains, beyond the sea, there is a group of Smurfs~ They are lively and smart~ They live happily and freely in the green primeval forest~ They are kind and— *(interrupted)* ????"
A vermilion figure came walking down the mountain stone steps, taking swaggering strides and singing in an irritatingly punchable tone.
A group of Kairagi suddenly leaped out and surrounded Fu, staring with indescribable expressions at this five-foot-tall little shrine maiden.
Kairagi? In the game, Fu utterly despised this type of mob—high attack, thick defense, and constantly jumping around. Seeing them in real life naturally gave her no good impressions.
"Boss! Come look at this!"
Fu: ...?
These lines aren't right, are they? Shouldn't the greeting be something like:
Let me test my blade! And then charge over with a drawn sword?
At the same time, a red-armored brute built like an ox strode out of the bushes, cackling hideously as he rubbed his hands and walked toward Fu, saliva practically dripping from the gaps in his mask.
"Ahahaha, look what we found? A stray little shrine maiden..."
"Boss takes first dibs!"
......
Fu helplessly covered her face:
"Then do you guys want to guess what I found?"
"Found what?!"
The Kairagi boss didn't rush to attack, instead asking teasingly.
"I found a group of stray Kairagi!"
"Pretty arrogant, aren't you? Let me teach you a good lesson!"
Their boss stepped forward with a swaggering gait, took off his mask to reveal a fierce, greasy, lecherous grin, and reached out with filthy hands to commit unspeakable acts. Fu let out a cold snort, leaped up, and delivered a backhand slap. The fellow made not a single sound as he spun 3600 degrees in mid-air before landing heavily on the ground to sleep soundly.
"Ah!?"
"Everyone attack together!"
"What is wrong with every single one of you? Are you begging to be beaten or scolded?"
The remaining Kairagi swarmed forward, trying to knock down this seemingly frail little shrine maiden. But amidst a crackling barrage of slaps that sounded like firecrackers, bodies were soon sprawled all over the ground in a disorderly heap.
"We seem to have run into a tough one!"
"Could she be the legendary Yae Miko?!"
"Run for it!"
A few Kairagi who hadn't attacked yet were trembling all over. As low-level drifters, they had never seen what Yae Miko looked like, but they had certainly heard of her formidable reputation.
After staring at each other blankly for a few seconds, the Kairagi scattered and fled in all directions.
"Hmph, trying to run?"
Fu flicked her hand to summon Engulfing Lightning, launched into a soaring dragon strike, and instantly sent three Kairagi sparking at the waist with electricity, causing them to twitch in agony on the ground.
"Want to try acting inhuman again? I'll thunder-slap you to death!"
Fu showed no mercy as she punched and kicked the Kairagi sprawled on the ground, periodically administering an electric shock for good measure.
In her eyes, these thugs who routinely terrorized the common folk and ravaged the mortal realm were simply scourges who wasted air while alive and wasted land when dead.
A few minutes later, the ground was littered with half-dead, bruised, battered, and utterly unrecognizable Kairagi. Leaving behind a string of English curses, Fu walked over to the bushes where the shrine maidens had just been tied up.
"Thank you, Lady Shogun, for saving us!"
After untying the ropes binding the shrine maidens, they suddenly dropped to their knees. Could it be, er...
Fu looked down at her body, and sure enough, she had reverted to the appearance of the Raiden Shogun in their eyes.
Fortunately, when she returned to her true form, the bushes had provided cover, so the kidnapped shrine maidens had only seen the Raiden Shogun appear to save them; otherwise, it would have been hard to explain.
No wonder Venti and Zhongli both used a change of clothes to conceal their identities rather than completely altering their appearance. It turned out that transformations required continuous maintenance and were easily interrupted by external factors.
At this thought, Fu suddenly realized something: who knows, maybe this bunch of Kairagi had already victimized plenty of others before... No, I'm going back to beat them more!
(Piercing screams)