On the road to Inazuma City, Hiragi Shinsuke finally woke up.
He stared at the shackles on his wrists and ankles, utterly stunned.
What was this?
Weren't they under attack?
Why was he the one in chains?
When he turned his head and saw who was escorting him, he grew even more confused.
They weren't his own men at all.
They were soldiers from the city.
"Hey… who are you people? There must be some mistake. Why are you arresting me?"
"The enemy is that foreigner!"
"Are you even listening to me?"
His protests bounced off armor and leather.
Kujou Sara rode up alongside the carriage, looking down at him. "If you have something to say, save it for the Shogun," she said coldly.
"You—General Kujou, this is a misunderstanding! The enemy has already defeated our troops, and you arrest me? Are you planning to defect?"
Sara did not rise to the bait.
"Everything will be clear before the Shogun," she replied. "Did you think I was unaware of what the Kanjou Commission has been doing?
"These last two years, you've used the Sakoku Decree as a shield while squeezing foreign merchants dry.
"Did you think that was invisible to everyone?"
Under her gaze, Hiragi tried to hold his ground. "The Shogun has said nothing. What does a mere general know of governance?
"When we stand before her, I will see to it that your crimes are judged."
The words came out strong.
Inside, his heart wasn't.
He knew exactly how much of the "tax" he collected ever reached the Shogunate.
Almost none.
Sara fell silent and urged her horse forward.
To keep things from blowing up before they reached the castle, she even had a black cloth thrown over the carriage, covering Hiragi from sight.
The column passed through the streets of Inazuma City and climbed toward Tenshukaku.
By the time they reached the castle keep, the sun was already sinking and the sky was turning red.
The soldiers at the gate exchanged looks as they watched Sara dismount with the Kanjou head in chains.
It wasn't a sight anyone had expected to see.
Soon, the two of them were standing outside the great hall.
Sara rapped twice on the door. "My Shogun, there is an urgent matter to report."
"Enter," came the answer.
"Yes."
They stepped inside.
Raiden Shogun sat upon the dais, impassive as a statue.
Her gaze flicked once to Hiragi's shackles.
"What is this?" she asked quietly.
Hiragi was the first to speak.
"Shogun, I suspect General Kujou has betrayed Inazuma—and betrayed you," he cried.
"This afternoon, a foreign ship arrived. Its crew refused our inspection and even attacked my men.
"Most of my Commission's soldiers were killed. Our family estate was destroyed with a single strike.
"And General Kujou knew these people were enemies, yet she did not seize them. Instead, she brought me here in chains.
"Those foreigners… many of them had Visions!"
The accusations spilled out in a single breath.
Ei's eyes did not change.
She turned her head instead. "You speak," she said to Sara.
Her voice was calm.
The weight behind it was not.
Hiragi felt the pressure fall on him like a physical weight. His throat closed. He didn't dare make another sound.
Sara didn't look at him.
She stepped forward, laid a document on the low table before the throne, and said, "This is the core of today's conflict, my Shogun. Please read it."
Raiden Shogun picked it up and scanned it once.
Then her gaze shifted back to Hiragi.
Only then did Sara begin her report.
"During his tenure, the head of the Kanjou Commission has embezzled public funds," she said. "He has used the Sakoku Decree as an excuse to bleed foreign merchants, and less than one tenth of what he collects reaches the city's coffers.
"The true cause of today's incident goes deeper.
"Working with the Tenryou Commission, he launched a raid on Liyue's mining operations.
"The party that came to Inazuma today were not ordinary merchants.
"They were envoys from Liyue Harbor.
"The man at their head is Liyue's acting authority, the national treasure appointed by the Geo Archon himself: Su Han.
"As for the claim that I betrayed you…" She bowed her head slightly. "That is false. I have already traded blows with him.
"I lost in a single move."
Ei's voice held a faint note of surprise. "His strength is that great?"
"Yes, my Shogun," Sara said. "Very great.
"He was the one who sealed the vortex demon god.
"And… he did not use his full power against me.
"It felt as though he were playing."
Sara had never lied to her ruler.
Ei knew that as well as she knew her own blade.
As for the reports of tax revenue, she had long had her own sense of the numbers.
Her cool violet gaze settled on Hiragi, now slumped on the floor.
"Do you have anything to say?" she asked.
"Shogun, I swear I never—never did such a thing. It was the Fatui… it was them…" Hiragi stammered.
"Oh?" Ei said. "Yet General Kujou did not mention the Fatui. How is it that you know they are involved?"
The color drained from his face.
For a moment, he simply opened and closed his mouth.
He turned desperately toward Sara.
She only snorted. "You really do underestimate that man," she said. "Narrow‑eyed fool.
"While he was taking two nations into his hands, you were busy cheating peddlers."
"I… I—"
Whatever he meant to say never left his tongue.
A flash of lightning ended the matter.
Hiragi Shinsuke collapsed where he knelt and did not move again.
Ei rose from the throne.
"Walk with me," she said.
"Yes, my Shogun," Sara answered.
Lightning rumbled over the city.
People looked up at the sky.
"Has the Shogun grown angry?"
"Thunder over the capital… it's a blessing of the gods."
"Raiden Shogun must be going on inspection…"
One by one, they dropped to their knees, praying for her favor.
Ei, for her part, had no attention to spare for any of it.
There was something she needed to see with her own eyes.
Thunder spread over the islands.
Even the offshore storm belts grew more violent, forcing fishermen back to shore.
Boats turned and fled for the harbors.
…
On Ritou, in the gutted courtyard of the Hiragi estate, Yae watched the clouds roil, lightning crawling through them.
"Careful," she said quietly. "The Raiden Shogun is coming.
"I told you. She wouldn't just let this pass."
Evidence or not, the puppet's thinking was rigid.
She would cut down the corrupt noble, yes.
But the Vision Hunt Decree would not stop. Nothing was more important than that.
Su Han smiled. "Don't worry. I'm ready for this."
A sky that thundered over an entire nation, a single will stretching from city to sea—that was the true measure of Ei's strength.
The power of a god.
He found himself wondering how many strikes he could withstand.
Clouds rolled in from every direction, stacking atop each other.
Purple lightning laced the sky.
Within a minute, a single massive bolt fell like a pillar onto the courtyard.
When it faded, Raiden Shogun stood there with Sara at her side.
Her eyes swept the garden.
Aside from Yae Miko, all the faces here were unfamiliar.
One man, though, made her pause.
He wore no Vision.
His aura, however, was anything but ordinary.
Even with his power held down, she could feel the dangerous weight of it.
A faint curve touched the corner of her mouth.
"You," she said. "You are the national treasure from Liyue?"
"That's right," Su Han replied. "And this time, I expect Inazuma to give me an explanation.
"If you don't, we will treat this raid as an act of war."
The bluntness of it drew a flicker of surprise from her.
So he had some strength.
But to stand before a god and speak in the language of threats…
Did he truly not fear being cut down?
"Hiragi Shinsuke is already dead," Ei said. "As for the Tenryou Commission, I will see to them myself.
"But you… are you ignorant of the Vision Hunt Decree?"
As she spoke, the light of lightning began to play along her form.
Power uncoiled from her like a storm.
Yae's earlier prediction turned to certainty.
For the sake of "eternity," the puppet would not hesitate.
Killing Hiragi had given Liyue its token face.
Now, she would take the Visions from any who bore them.
That was the path she had chosen.
The force pouring from her body rolled across the courtyard.
Sara had to step back, boots grinding on stone.
The sky above was lost under a web of thunder.
Any being with a Vision stood now on the opposite side of that dividing line.
Facing the oncoming god‑pressure, Su Han's lips quirked.
So it would be a battle of will first.
He wasn't planning to back down.
His own Conqueror's Haki surged out to meet hers.
The collision shook Ritou.
The Hiragi estate and the buildings around it split and cracked as the two auras clashed.
Even the sky seemed cut in two—one half boiling with lightning, the other filled with a strange, roiling energy that did not belong to any of Teyvat's seven elements.
For a moment, they were nearly matched.
It was only the beginning.
Ei's feet left the ground as she rose slowly into the air.
Purple light gathered at her chest, brightening by the heartbeat.
"I acknowledge your strength," she said. "And your courage.
"But the Vision Hunt cannot stop. Whatever you are in Liyue, whatever name you bear…
"From this moment, the thunder is your enemy."
From the space between her breasts, a blade of pure light slipped free.
Musou Isshin.
The dream of one heart.
Mona, Shenhe, and the others all blanched.
So this was a god's true power.
They had thought themselves improved, each step of training lifting them higher.
Before this, it barely seemed to matter.
The presence alone was enough to crush breath from lungs.
To challenge a god was to set yourself against the sky itself.
Standing in the teeth of that pressure, Su Han finally understood just how much the "game's" version had been holding back.
For the Traveler Ying to cross swords with the Raiden Shogun and come away with a draw…
If Ei truly swung as she was now, one stroke would have been enough to erase her.
Who would ever believe otherwise?