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“Is that...a fish?”

The small, homey inn on the waysides of Liyue was supposed to be the perfect place for Chongyun to catch up on some meditation. However, in place of the peaceful and quiet morning he expected were three grinning faces with eyes peeled on every muscle on his face, waiting for a trace of a smile to grace their presence. He’d been planning to go hike up Mount Tianheng to exercise in the thin, cold mountain air, but as soon as he’d stepped out of his room, he’d heard voices that immediately told him there would be a very slight problem blocking him even getting out of the lodge.

“Good morning, dear sir. Excuse us for asking, but we’re looking for a travelling exorcist?”

“About this tall! Guoba, come over here for a minute no I asked you to face here Guoba-! ”

“He should be talking about ghosts and how he can’t see them all the time, too. If you tell us, I’ll give you a discount on our cremation offers!”

“Look alive, my liege!” Xingqiu tried to reassure him as he gestured to the fish Xiangling was holding by the tail. “This weapon was the bane of the creatures prowling the murkiest corners of the Sea of Clouds, the undisputed ruler of the undulating crests and troughs of the ocean. In your hands, perhaps its greatness and legend will spread to the land, and be the key to cleansing this world of all evil!”

“This is a weapon?” he again asked as he eyeballed the thing that the chef was holding. Xiangling did seem to be having a better time holding the supposed sea creature than if she were holding a wriggly, slimy creature. 

“What Mr. Frustrated Author means is this good ol’ salted fish might prove more useful to you than your Old Merc’s Pal,” interrupted Hu Tao. Her grin was as devious as always, and Chongyun itched to point out that she had the privilege of having a hand-me-down Staff of Homa as a weapon. But this line of bickering had already been worn down so many times that he already knew exactly how she was going to respond: “ You could have chosen literally any other weapon, Popsicle Boy. I’m not the one who rejected my family’s traditional weapon on purpose. ”

Xiangling, who was multitasking keeping the heavy-looking fish upright and keeping Guoba between her feet, enthusiastically nodded. “Plus! If you’re hungry, you can always eat it! I had Beidou and her crew’s word that there were no spices on their ship whatsoever, so you should be fine!” 

That didn’t sound right. “Excuse me?”

“What, did you think this was a silly old fish-shaped hunk of metal?” sneered Hu Tao. Before he could reply or bring out a talisman, her companion ghost was already tapping Xiangling’s back, making the poor girl yelp and releasing her grip on the weapon.

Time seemed to slow as the ungodly peal of laughter erupting from Hu Tao’s mouth and Xiangling’s scream melded into an incongruous symphony. HIs body moved before his mind could process what was happening. Well-trained legs that had scouted the entirety of Liyue leapt over the five or so remaining steps separating him from the ground floor of the inn, and before the fish could splatter its organs all over the floor, he managed to catch it by its bodice. Unfortunately, his efforts to catch the fish were rewarded by him crashing painfully onto the floor.

Xingqiu, who was standing to the side of the two bickering Pyro users, smiled at him from above. “Director Hu has prepared an excellent chance for you to have a small tete-a-tete with this beast of legend, dearest Chongyun! This is an opportunity you can’t let go of!”

Though he felt like he had been trampled on by Liyue’s extinct deer, he took Xingqiu’s advice. The white-clothed exorcist edged his face closer to the main body of the fish. True to what Xiangling had said, the weapon was indeed a very hard fish. The familiar smoky, salty scent of preserved fish treats that drifted up to his nose and the rough calcified scales on its bodice told him as much. Even so, he had never seen a fish of such length before, even in the many fish hybrids in his clan’s Field Guide. The tail was also disproportionately long in comparison to its body, which served as a perfect makeshift hilt. Chongyun stood up from where he had crashed into position, using both hands to get a feel of the weight of the scaly weapon. 

If he ignored the unseeing pale yellow eye of the tuna staring at him, and blocked off all lingering scents of smoked fish, it really did feel as if he was holding a slightly heavier claymore with a center of gravity slightly more tilted towards the blade end. The Waster Greatswords and Old Merc’s Pals he’d been using to protect himself from Hilichurls, Slimes, and the occasional Ruin Guard varied in the smaller details, but they were all generally of the same make. He gripped two hands onto the fin side, and tentatively tried swinging it.

“Watch it, exorcist!” barked Hu Tao, who was a safe 4 feet away from the arc his new aquatic weapon traced in the cramped lodge lobby. “Xingqiu’ll have to pay for the damages and the funerals of two girls if you keep up your horseplay,”

He lowered the fish, embarrassment over memories (or lack thereof) the last time his Hydro best friend had done that flooding his brain. “Can this really be used as a weapon?” he again asked. 

“Beidou said that that fish had been preserved in salt for so long that it had basically stiffened,” called out Xiangling from the corner of the lobby. At her feet, Guoba, no longer in his usual sitting position, was looking angrily in the direction of Hu Tao. “I can say that it’s still edible, too, so if ever you’re hungry, you can just grab a piece off the meat. You really should expand your diet outside of just your noodles and popsicles, Chongyun.”

”You know why I can’t, Xiangling,” he sighed as he lifted up the fish again, careful not to scrape it across the floor. Chongyun wasn’t sure which end of the fish’s gaping mouth was the sharp end, and he didn’t want to risk the sharp tongue of the innkeeper and the sharper bite of hefty property destruction fines. “But...is it really okay for me to take this weapon?”

“Of course it is! Take it as my contribution to spreading the Moonchase spirit!” replied the Wanmin chef as she cautiously detached herself from the corner. Once Guoba had guaranteed that Hu Tao was a safe distance away from Xiangling, she  “All about the celebration of food, the best thing in the world!”

Oh . “...Right. The Moonchase Festival.”

In his week-long vigil, only broken by the three intrepid Vision users, there were no signs of celebration or festivity in his chosen corner of Liyue. Moonchase wasn’t as big as the Lantern Rite, but the harbor was bound to be even more packed than usual on both occasions. The mere thought of trying to squeeze past the wave of bodies lining up to sample the food from the stalls made his temperature rise to dangerous levels. Despite the summer heat fading away to cooler autumn breezes, he started fanning himself lightly with his hand.

“Recall, dearest Chongyun, that this is a celebration of a pure soul who went on a journey to Adeptihood. Naturally, this means joining in this celebration is yet another step in your journey to achieving your goal,” added Xingqiu.

Leave it to the most adept filibuster in Liyue to always convince him. Ever since they’d met, Chongyun had been relying on the Guhua apprentice more than he wanted to admit. After every failed exorcism, he’d always find a way to cheer him up. Maybe he could do without much of the Feiyun son’s trickery, but to say that his life’s trajectory was changed by him would not be an understatement.

“Oh please, all this extra fanfare and filler talk is so unnecessary. Can’t we can’t just get straight to the point?” grumbled Hu Tao. Under Guoba’s watchful eye, she skipped over to where he was standing.  “Chongyun, what day is it today?”

“That’s not how you do it, Director Hu. You underestimate the power of build up in a story,” sighed Xingqiu from behind her.

“Oh, is that why you can’t finish your story? Because you just can’t have enough build-up?”

What seemed to be the start of another poetry battle filled with poorly-disguised slander and bitebacks was quickly reduced to background noise in Chongyun’s mind. He gripped the extremely hard makeshift hilt of the fish claymore as he tried to make his mind’s gears turn. What day was it today? It was obviously Moonchase season, landing them at around the start of autumn. When he told his friends that he would be unavailable for any Wanmin lunches, it was around the end of the month, when Xiangling was grumbling about Lady Ningguang’s birthday reservations. Counting the days since then should land him at...

“It’s...the 7th?”

He blankly stared at the duo, who had put aside their squabble in favor of looking at him expectantly. Xingqiu had his arms crossed across his chest with a smile. Hu Tao had her usual haughty expression matched with both arms on her hips. Xiangling, on the other hand, had disappeared, along with Guoba.

“He’s not reacting,” remarked Xingqiu, as if he were an interesting specimen that had caught his fancy.

“He probably would have overheated already if he’d connected the dots,” agreed Hu Tao.

The two junior poets exchanged knowing looks, while leaving Chongyun completely out of it. “I know seven is an auspicious number, but around two months ago would have been a better day to celebrate it if you really wished to focus on that. Why--”

“SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”

Xiangling’s voice, accompanied with the loud BANG! of a wooden door being slammed into a concrete wall, made Chongyun’s stomach jump all the way into his throat. A painful burst of adrenaline injected itself into his bloodstream, and before he could even think to start his breathing exercises and to blank his mind, he felt his vision going woozy.

Braided cerulean strands of hair came into view, fading in and out of the brown of the inn walls. From somewhere in front of him, Xiangling’s voice called out. “Oh my gods, I’m sorry! I thought Hu Tao gave me the go signal!”

“I did!”

He felt a faint touch of silk catch him as he felt his control on himself loosening. A warm, calloused hand grazed against his forehead, a touch he recognized as the same one as when Xiangling repeatedly checked if he was reacting to her food. A small yelp, followed by the cold metal of numerous rings held him by the shoulder, told him that even Hu Tao had joined in on helping him from falling down on the floor.

When he felt himself slipping away, he usually fought tooth and nail to wrest control back from the ironclad grip of his other self. When his own mental fortitude was lacking, methods relating to the physical become necessary. A popsicle from his neverending stash would do the trick easily. But for once, he found himself unwilling to fight back. Maybe he really was sleep-deprived, no thanks to the same three people who now surrounded him. Maybe for once, he believed that these three who he had been through hundreds of monster fights would be able to take care of him without any judgement.

“T-thank you, everyon...e…”

==

Liyue was not a land rich with thickets of luscious trees. It was a hodgepodge of cliffs and rock scattered haphazardly across stretches of plains and sandbars. 

This was why Chongyun found himself with his back pressed to a small boulder, making himself as small as possible. Initially, it was only supposed to be a small commission from the Adventurer’s Guild. He usually took the higher rank commissions in order to test his combat abilities, but Lan had said that this C-rank commission was the only commission they had received for the day. Dispatch a small band of troublemaker Hillichurls for some bags of Mora, Katheryne had politely told him. It wouldn’t be anything new, but he was still disappointed. There would be no room for improvement against easy, “fodder” enemies.

But by some stroke of bad luck, the “small band of troublemaker Hillichurls” turned out to be a whole flock of Hillichurls. If his first impression of the scene was correct, there were about six Stonehide Lawachurls walking about the premises, along with around ten of the axe-wielding chieftains. To make things worse battlewise, this scene was also close to a pit that exuded bad karma. That there were miasmas borne of the hatred and scorn of the Archon War’s fallen gods was trivial, but to go up against monsters influenced by that miasma was a different thing.

It was a challenge, of course, which he was grateful for. But he couldn’t hold down the feeling that he had bitten off more than he could chew.

Chongyun looked up at the sky as he tried formulating a game plan, silently cursing himself for being too distracted to read up on the methods of fighting. This place was quite far from water, so finding a substitute for Xingqiu’s Hydro Swords would be hard. There were also no auspiciously placed barrels, which would have made a fine substitute for a Guoba. The miasma might be rich in Yin energy, which his constitution would probably weaken, but there would be no merit in solely relying on that.

“Alright, the weight of my claymore should be enough to stun the larger enemies, so I should start off with a serial attack, enough to stun them. Doing a spinning attack might also get several of the small guys in one go…”

He had no time to get to the end of his battle plan before a flash of green appeared above him, and the Hillichurls behind the rock erupted in commotion. 

He stood up, freeing himself from his hiding place, and gaped in awe at the scene. The green streak had materialized into a human, no, humanoid , he corrected himself, figure with a spear in one hand. With unparalleled gracefulness, the young looking man broke out of his airborne stance and plunged into the gathering Hillichurls, immediately disintegrating them into dust. Several enraged Mitachurls swung their axes, tinted red with heat, at the teal-haired being, but when the tooth reached where he was, all it cut through was empty space. He moved swiftly and lightly as he weaved through spinning monster attacks and stray Slime bombs, even amidst the drove of monsters and weapons imbued with bygone hatred. Of course Chongyun knew all about him. He was luckier than most because he had actually seen him, even if all their interactions were just mere glances and glimpses stolen from the corners of Wangshu Inn. But those meetings were never fully in the flesh, and never on the battlefield.

Call it selfish, but who would let the chance stand alongside a living legend, an icon not only in the eyes of his trade, but in the eyes of any decent human born on Liyue, a hero , Adeptus Xiao?

Chongyun sprinted towards the scene, letting the Cryo energy make his steps lighter, and was about to resummon his claymore into his hands when his gloved hand met stiff roughness. That was maybe the second-worst place to remember that his weapon was a literal fish. His second’s worth of hesitation was enough for an archer to send a flaming arrow flying in his direction, but the Cryo user managed to dash away at the last second. This is a chance I could only dream of! , he thought as he dodged a tossed Slime and continued running  to the central field, now painted with streaks of Anemo green. A chance to show Adeptus Xiao that human thaumaturgy is worth something, something that humans can talk of with pride to the divine! The shockwaves from the stone-covered giant Lawachurls sent vibrations straight to his core, and he could barely stand, let alone run. Yet the obstacle only served to push Chongyun to make his legs move ever faster.

“Weapons are but the vessels used by exorcists to conquer evil!” he yelled above all the ruckus as he manifested a circle of Cryo energy otno the dirt, stunning the Lawachurl.

“A human?” quipped Xiao, moments before he quickly dashed into the weakened Lawachurl, and back again, silencing a small part of the tremors. “If you think this is target practice, or just some game, leave now. Do not get in the way of Adeptal matters.”

“I understand that this is not a mere game, Adeptus Xiao,” Chongyun said, trying to put as much respect into his words as he possibly could while under attack from a Mitachurl axe. He didn’t even have time to see where the Adeptus was going. Against the oppressive force of the axe, Chongyun feared that the solidified fish would snap into two, but even the force he was using to push back against the brute and the brunt of a very sharp looking axe wsa not enough to coax a single tear from its scaly skin. Gritting his teeth, Chongyun slightly shifted his stance, and threw the monster off balance. 

All their ruckus had attracted the small mages’ attention. Perfect. The tide of the battle was shifting, urging him to use one of his most powerful tools.

Behind him, Xiao, who had dashed through multiple enemies, dissolving them into nothingness, was about to issue a second reprimand, but instead stood still as his amber eyes widened. “Is that…!”

Chongyun had no time to even notice Xiao’s outburst. His hands moved on their own, quickly running through the secret hand signals, and finally raised two fingers into the air, pointing above the stunned enemy. Hopefully, the explosion from the ice swords would take care of all the small mages rushing to help their chieftain. “SPIRIT BLADE, ATTACK!”

Even before, when he wandered around Liyue with mere Waster Greatswords, the sound of rime-covered swords colliding with the ground and exploding was a familiar sight. But ever since his friends had gifted him with the “Luxurious Sea Lord”, as Xingqiu had called it, his three trusty blades had gained a new companion.

Three blades crashed into the dusty ground in succession, each one obliterating any mage that was unfortunate enough to stand near it. The small explosion erupted by each, just as Chongyun had planned, took care of the rest. The survivor, a hulking Mitachurl and the remaining monsters not pulled to the general area, looked at him mockingly, but Chongyun simply stood still, waiting for the final warrior to make its appearance.

From Rex Lapis knows where, a giant tuna, with gills still desperately scavenging for air and fins quivering, manifested above the last remaining monster. It was just like a moment from the fishermen’s songs of salty sea water teeming with fish, so much that fish would start jumping into the boat. For the fleeting moments it was in the air, its fins, its entire poise screamed elegance.

And then it dived into the monster, splitting its body into two in a bodacious display of strength before sending it back to the elements and flopping to the ground. It bounced around, gills opening and closing, desperately searching for a single drop of water. Chongyun was not really sure how exactly his salted fish weapon summoned a tuna from the ocean. Whether it opened a small portal from the sea to summon one of its chosen disciples to dispatch, or whether his weapon had the literal power to create life itself didn’t really matter to him. The summoned fish’s suffering would end, as it would disappear as if it were never there. It didn’t make it any less painful to watch its suffering.

However, the exorcist was not the only one who had noticed the wild dance of life and death of the tuna. All the remaining Hillichurls, mages, archers, even the brawny Lawachurls, had all set what Chongyun thought were their eyes at the struggling fish. In the five seconds of the carnage pausing, he saw an eerily familiar twinkle in the Hillichurls eyes-not-eyes. A twinkle he’d seen one too many times from a Xiangling carrying her newest Slime Condensate experiments. They were hungry.

He dashed out of the way just in time to avoid the mass of bodies descending upon the lone fish. Retreating to a spot near the Hillichurl house, Chongyun looked on in awe as the about 20, no, 30 piles of writhing flesh squabbled and pushed to get a bite out of the tuna. Why they fought tooth and nail for a fish that probably won’t have enough meat to fill everyone up was a mystery.

“Maybe I’ll want to go vegetarian after seeing all this…,” he muttered to himself. He’d heard of Anemo users using the pull of the winds to neutralize frisky enemies, and he’d long thought about how to mimic the same effect with just his martial arts. Not once did he think about fish being a good alternative. 

He heard the sound of wind whistling past him, and before he knew it, a masked Xiao had leapt into the air, high above the heads of the unsuspecting monsters. Before any one of them even had the chance to look up, he had already plunged the tip of his jade spear into their midst. Chongyun shielded his eyes from the specter of spears rising from the dirt, and when the sounds of metal hitting ground subsided, he opened his eyes, revealing Xiao standing amidst ashes swept away by the low wind. Not a single trace of the tuna flopping on the ground just a few moments prior remained.

“You, human boy,” Liyue’s most famous Anemo user’s sharp voice began, and it took Chongyun a while to register that he was the only human boy in the immediate vicinity. “From where did you get your...weapon of yours?”

“A-Adeptus Xiao!” he stuttered, and immediately threw the salted fish onto the ground, pretending like he hadn’t just wiped away numerous monsters with it. All of his bravado over “what matters is not the outside” and “martial arts prowess will speak for itself” immediately evaporated. Xiao was famous among pilgrims for being a particularly curt Adeptus. Not enough to incite legitimate fear like his counterparts at Jueyun Karst, but still enough for his hands to start quivering. “I...only got this as a gift. Please excuse me for showing a very unprofessional side of myself.”

Xiao ignored all of his ramblings, instead opting to walk towards the tossed-aside fish. That was the moment when Chongyun realized that maybe he was going to die right then and there. On his travels to Wangshu Inn on Xingqiu’s tips, he’d rehearsed various lines, planned according to those “branching storylines” that his best friend loved to talk about. What he had just said was not part of his elaborate conversation starters. Gods, maybe he should have taken up Hu Tao’s discount on that coffin . 

“I thought he had long left this world, followed the path of Bosacius…”

His panicked thoughts were interrupted by Xiao’s soft murmur, devoid of all the dressings of authority he always commanded. “Adeptus Xiao? Are you alright?”

Xiao stayed mute, frozen in his hunched-over position over the fish. The young Adeptus gingerly placed one hand underneath the fish, saddling it as one does a baby. To Chongyun, who had grown up with numerous paintings depicting Xiao with a plethora of legendary weapons and equally legendary figures, the scene unfolding in front of him was ridiculous.

“Am I having a fever dream?” he asked himself, putting a palm to his own forehead and neck. His right hand moved on its own, grabbing a popsicle and shoving it in his mouth. The force almost caused him to choke. The shocking cold of the frozen treat, the hacking coughs he erupted into, and the unfading image of Xiao swaddling his hardened fish weapon, intently staring at its unblinking eye told him that no, this was something even his Yang energy couldn’t conjure up with a thousand Jueyun Chili peppers .

Adding to his luck streak, Xiao chose the exact moment when he was hacking up a storm to break his scarily intimate eye contact with his weapon and face him. Strike two for Chongyun’s death flags. He could really only hope that there was a banquet of Inazuma dishes on the other side. “Your friend has explained everything,” said Xiao.

“My--” Chongyun attempted to start, only to be interrupted by another cough. “My friend?” he finally managed to complete.

“What stands before you is a being of great power, feared by all that lived in the waters of Liyue, of Teyvat, even,” Xiao explained, but not without a light click of the tongue. “Alas, the last time I heard of him, he had gone down an unknown path. I assumed he had left this world, much like many of my colleagues.”

Chongyun was usually fast on the upkeep when it came to things about spirits and demons. But on this occasion, he felt like he had started a conversation with the children playing on Liyue’s streets about games he had never even heard of. “I’m sorry, Adeptus Xiao, forgive me for possibly misunderstanding, but...did my weapon tell you that?”

“Adepti work on a very different set of rules than humans do. Keep that in mind at all times,” was Xiao’s reply. The Cryo user wouldn’t call himself very well-acquainted with the unspoken rules of modern Liyue, but even he had to raise an eyebrow (or a popsicle stick) at the intense exchange of glares his idol had given his weapon. 

“I knew him as a great warrior, capable of summoning the might of the sea at will, drowning anyone who dared cross his path. To think that he would be reduced to this…”

The sheer disappointment in Xiao’s tone made Chongyun flinch. “I was not aware of this history, Adeptus Xiao. I only received this as a gift, without much explanation. If I may, I will do everything in my power to restore...him? To this former glory,” he said. All the while, his brain was going over possible options. Would throwing it back into the ocean break the preservative’s hold on the fish’s body? Would Adepti arts be necessary?

Xiao shook his head. “No matter. He has explained everything to me. While I may not fully comprehend his thought process, it is clear that it is by his will that he joins you on your journey.” At those words, Xiao extended his arms, presenting Chongyun with the fish. 

Chongyun gaped at Xiao for a few moments. He was not going to believe that the Adeptus would lie to him, but to think that his companion fish claymore had the ability to form an opinion about him, and the fact that said opinion was good , was probably the most unbelievable thing. (Of course there was Xiao communicating with the fish, and how he carried the thing almost lovingly, but he’d rather not deal with those today). A weird sense of pride flared up in him as he took back his weapon. 

“Th-thank you so much, Adeptus Xiao! I will carry those words with me, and become an even better exorcist!”

Xiao turned away wordlessly and looked to the sky. “One last thing, mortal.”

He readied himself to receive a noble task, bestowed from the hands of Adeptus Xiao himself. However, all he had to say before jumping into the air was this:

“Please, don’t eat him.”

==

To cleanse the world of all evil, and to make the world a safer place for everyone. This was Chongyun’s ultimate goal. In Xingqiu’s words, that was what a Fontainean would call a raison d’etre. No matter what hardships he might meet along the way, he was resolved to overcome them to reach the destination he’d longed for ever since he knew of his family’s long history.

“And who might you be, comrade?”

Childe - Tartaglia. Chongyun’s family did not deal in politics, but even he knew that having a Fatui Harbinger gallivanting about the streets of Liyue was a poor decision. He had never interacted with the 11th Harbinger directly, but rumors spread quickly in the land where gossip was just another form of currency. The chaos and void of power left in Rex Lapis’ passing was prime bait for him .

“My name is Chongyun, a practitioner of the art of exorcism,” he stiffly replied. The ginger in front of him was still a human, even if the scent of battle lingered on the horizon. He musn’t forget his manners. 

Childe looked curiously at his own sleeves, and patted himself down. “As far as I know, Chongyun, I’m not a demon! I have all the right number of limbs and skin tone of an ordinary human. Maybe you’re lost, because I don’t think you have any business being in here.”

His stomach dropped at the venom that entered into the young man’s words. According to Xiangling, the Snezhnayan was utterly hopeless at using chopsticks, and was always extremely chatty whenever he came to sample Liyue cuisine with Zhongli. But the Tsaritsa does not employ mere goofballs. He was dangerous. Chongyun closed his eyes, and steadied his stance.

“You have no business meddling with the sacred body of a fallen god, I fear.”

Childe laughed at his chutzpah, a hearty laugh that could fool anyone into thinking he was just a normal happy-go-lucky man. “You’re a Cryo, right? Favored by Her Majesty the Tsaritsa herself. Let’s see if you can indeed freeze me in my tracks!”

He took out his bow, and Chongyun dashed to the side. As expected, streaks of Hydro infused arrows rippled to where he had been. Even from a safe distance away, he felt the power rushing behind every wave of attacks Tartaglia let go with his bow. The Harbinger had the advantage of range, but Chongyun had the weight of a claymore and a speed boost from his Vision at his fingertips. He sharply turned left, planning dodgin another foamy wave of attacks from the ginger, planning to release his Layered Frost and incapacitate the Harbinger’s Hydro with Cryo.

Unfortunately, a shining purple stiletto, and the visage of a girl in purple swiping an electricity-infused blade, beat him into knocking the gray-suited man off his stance.

“Chongyun?” a familiar voice asked.

“Lady Keqing!” 

He doubted the Chonghua clan had enough influence to be able to have weekly tea sessions with the Qixing, but he and Keqing were not the run of the mill exorcist and Qixing. Away from the pagodas of Yuehai Pavillion, he and the Yuheng often met in their journeys across Liyue, usually due to chance. Their meetings were usually brief, but Chongyun had grown appreciative of the uptight young woman’s determination. Her whole anti-Rex Lapis insistence, however, was something he had yet to fully wrap his head around.

Chongyun moved to check up on her to ask if she’d told her fellow Qixing about the incapacitated guards at the entrance, but Keqing had turned away after a small nod of acknowledgement. The young lady was instead pointing her sword at the upended Snezhnayan.

“So the reports were correct. You kowtow before a goddess, making yourself her little lapdog,” Keqing spat out at Childe with narrowed eyes. “You threaten the safety of this Harbor, you accuse the Qixing of treachery. Is this the diplomacy that gods espouse?”

Childe was back up immediately, the surprise factor already wearing off. The little grin he wore all throughout his Hydro arrow barrage had grown into a sinister smile under the threat of Keqing’s blade, threatening to split his head into two. “Don’t you think it’s a little unfair, how you two are fighting against one me? Well, that just makes it even more fun!”

A hemisphere of flowing Hydro surrounded him, shielding him from sight. “Lady Keqing, get back!” Chongyun managed to yell. In response, Keqing flicked up a finger, sending her Lightning Stiletto about three feet above Childe.

The raging of the water calmed, revealing a now mask-clad ginger. His friendly gray attire had turned black, and the Electro purple accents weaving through his attire just screamed business The faint smell of the sea quickly faded away, giving way to a prickling sensation that made his hairs stand up. Keqing teleported away, just in time to avoid the spear of buzzing Electro energy skewering her through the stomach. She quickly plunged down and started her barrage of quick slashes as Childe walked around her.

She won’t be able to hold her own .

He had stayed to the side, as per their mutual agreement for him to never, ever lay down his Frost Circle when she was attacking. But his hands moved on their own. Chongyun was from Liyue, the land of contracts. Of course he’d be able to easily find loopholes in agreements.

He placed his fingers right above the ginger man under attack from a quickly tiring Keqing.  “FROM WHENST YOU CAME!”

The Snezhnayan native looked up, a smile growing on his face as he recalled Morepesok winters, and he tumbled out of the way of the gigantic ice swords. Keqing looked at Chongyun, face already red in exhaustion, and gave him a small smile and a thumbs up. 

Her opponent, meanwhile, looked like he had barely broken a sweat. “To think that you were a claymore user!” the Harbinger exclaimed, still doubling over in laughter. “The chill felt so much like home. I’ll have to give that to you.”

Then came that change in tone, the tone that matched the emptiness in his stormy eyes. “But you understand, do you not, Chongyun? Like in the contracts of Liyue. You take, and you must also appropriately receive.”

Two twin spears of Electro spears buzzed into existence in the Harbingers palms. He placed their ends together, forming a longer spear, and started spinning it around himself. However, Chongyun, just like how the benefactors of his exorcism painted him as, remained perfectly still, lips set in a straight line.

Right on his cue, the giant tuna tumbled out of thin air, once again knocking Tartaglia out of his elaborate baton twirl routine. The tuna twitched above the fallen young man, who tried to crane his neck to get a good look at what had the power to bring a Harbinger to his knees.

“What...in the Tsaritsa’s name?”

Even Keqing, who he hadn’t seen since his last roundtrip around Liyue before the Moonchase Festival, looked stunned. To answer both of their unsaid questions, he summoned his fish claymore into his hands, grasping it by its tail-cum-hilt and performing one strike.

Their reactions were like night and day. Keqing’s initially perplexed face grew more and more confused. Childe, on the other hand, applauded. His claps, dulled by his gloves, echoed menacingly against the piles of Mora surrounding them, but even from his distance, Chongyun could see the wide smile behind the mask.  “Bravo! Bravo, my dearest comrade! I’ve faced against the creatures that lurk in humanity’s darkest desires, machines from bygone civilizations, and yet! A fish has brought me down, just like home!”

He stood up, extracting himself from the slimy grasp of the tuna and ran up to Chongyun excitedly. Chongyun responded by raising his weapon higher, but instead of ripping through him with a shot of electricity, Childe shook his shoulders vigorously.

“Excuse me, you’re gripping a little too ha-”

“Comrade! It’s been so long since I’ve seen anyone catch a fish of that caliber! Even Liyue Harbor’s finest fishermen have never given me something like this!” the still-masked Harbinger excitedly rattled out. 

“I swear to all the Archons, I will end you.”

In the middle of the Delusion-bearing man’s tirade, Keqing’s glare had turned from irate to straight up murderous . Chongyun had given up listening to Childe’s strangely specific stories about ice fishing horror stories and instead looked at the purple-clad Yuheng behind the blabbering Harbinger. This living weapon of war, whose name sent fear into the hearts of the Fatui, was now happily chirping about the intricacies of bait and his and his younger brothers’ favorite type of fish, not even noticing the very angry girl approaching him with a drawn sword.

Chongyun was discovering new uses of fish with every battle he fought alongside his gift.

With one swift knock to the diplomat’s red mane with the dull end of Keqing’s blade, Chongyun was cut free from the shackles of Snezhnayan Ice Fishing 101. The tall man crumpled to the floor, knocking his mask off his face.

“Thanks, Lady Keqing. I’m not sure I was the proper audience for his lecture,” he said as he put one hand on his shoulder.

Keqing sighed. Most of her anger had went into whacking the annoying ginger on the head, but 

Chongyun had heard enough of her rants about her “inefficient subordinates” out in the wild to know that she wasn’t quite done with her outburst just yet. The Electro user left Childe’s limp body to Chongyun, and walked over to where Childe had left the tuna.

“Um, Lady Keqing? About the incapacitated guards at the entrance and the Exuvia?”

“The Qixing will be alerted, so no need for you to worry, Chongyun,” Keqing stated matter-of-factly as she took out her stiletto again. After running her hand down the slimy outline of the fish, she sparked the stiletto and stabbed it into a fleshy part of the body, staying her hand on the protruding part and gently maneuvering the stiletto around the entry point. After a few seconds, she took out her stiletto, and pinched a small piece of meat away from the tuna and into her mouth.

Just like that, a genuine positive look bloomed on her face again.

“Would you like to try some, Chongyun? I’m aware of your condition, but the heat my technique uses should be negligible.”

Chongyun’s hands went to the back of his neck. “I’ll pass, thank you.”

She sighed, this time with a satisfied look on her face. “This so-called diplomat may have battle skills, but he will never know the joys of a perfectly electrified fish.”

==

Unfortunately, as Chongyun found himself barely managing to stand against the wrath of an incoming storm, the power of dubious friendship through fishing would not be enough.

In place of the now incapacitated Tartaglia, taken out of commission by reasons inadmissible to the public, Signora, the 8th Harbinger, released the faux Sigils of Permission, breaking Osial out of his prison and sending him on a one-way collision course with Liyue. Everything after he and Keqing had gone out of the Golden House seemed like a haze, even when he quickly jumped up when the members of the Millelith were looking for Vision wielders to support Lady Ningguang and the Adepti’s attack.

“Do you sell the moon here?” Xiangling asked, using Guoba to shield herself from the incessant rain.

“No need for the passwords. Come quickly, please.” 

It was Chongyun’s first time ever ascending to the Jade Chamber, he realized quickly as he tried to take in the sights of the floating building. Xingqiu was a frequent visitor, and Hu Tao often bragged about her whopping total of two visits, but the descriptions of those two wordsmiths could not do justice to the well-crafted interior of the residence.

“Ningguang!” cried out Keqing, still sopping wet from running in the rain. “What exactly do you plan to do?”

“The Adepti will be coming shortly to lend their powers to the ballistas of the Jade Chamber,” the Tianquan coolly replied. She then directed her words to the twenty or so people gathered in front of her. “I’d like to thank everyone in this room for offering their powers for the greater good of Liyue. It is anticipated that the Fatui will attempt to meddle with our efforts to fight against Osial. To prevent this, I wish for your cooperation.”

The vision users  in front of them grimly nodded. Xingqiu stifled a giggle, and Chongyun nudged him slightly. “Xingqiu, not now,” he whispered.

“There’s a reason why Miss Beidou didn’t come up here,”

He rolled his eyes. He’d been victim to Xingqiu’s dreamed up stories about the two giants of Liyue. Why he entertained himself with the possible romantic adventures of someone he clearly disliked was just another one of the Guhua clan member’s peculiarities. 

Whatever continuation Xingqiu planned to make to his dreamed up affair story was cut off by the sound of impact coming from behind them. 

“And that must be our good ol’ divine friends!” announced Hu Tao. “Trust me, I’ve heard what immortal footsteps sound like. Let’s go meet up with them!”

Despite the sheer rudeness implicit in interrupting the most powerful mortal in the country, Ningguang nodded and walked towards the double doors of the small meeting room, the cue for everyone else to follow. Chongyun let himself go with the flow. Of course the only time he’d ever think of believing what Hu Tao said was in a literal apocalypse scenario.

Sure enough, the funeral parlor director was right. Standing before them in the rain-drenched landing platform were Mountain Shaper, Cloud Retainer, Moon Carver, Ganyu, the headdressed secretary of the Qixing, and Xiao, all on floating platforms of shining Geo energy. Out of sheer instinct, Chongyun stopped in his tracks.

“One has been kept waiting. Yet, one also senses a sublime presence,” the tall crane Adeptus mused from her platform. 

Xiao looked up at the crane. “It appears that an old friend of ours has resurfaced into the hands of a mortal,” he explained, but even Chongyun, who was sure to keep his ears peeled for anything Xiao had to say, could barely hear him over the torrential rain.

“If his powers at his prime were combined with ours, I have no doubt that the interlopers will be hastily taken care of.”

The small glance Xiao gave him from his low platform  was enough for Chongyun to understand they were talking about his weapon, still sheathed within his little pocket dimension. As a point, he pulled out his salted fish by the tail, getting some looks from the other Vision users. 

“Adeptus Xiao, if you and the Adepti mean…,” he glanced at Xingqiu, still a little lost on what to call his weapon, “the Luxurious Sea Lord? Then I am prepared to lend whatever power it may hold to take down Osial.”

Hu Tao snorted, but Cloud Retainer walked towards the crowd of Allogenes. The Vision users in her path quickly scrambled away, half out of respect and half to avoid her wet feathers, but Chongyun remained still, holding out his claymore. The tall bird Adeptus stopped in front of him and looked solemnly at the fish.

“One has received a message from a companion from years past. Using his mortal companion’s technique with the elements, he may be able to summon a being of great power, which, when combined with one’s own powers, may prove effective. Yet, one finds it strange that he calls a mortal his ‘friend’....”

Cloud Retainer’s piercing glare cut through Chongyun. He felt extremely judged at that moment.

“The Fatui! We must raise the ballistae now! Vision users, protect the ballistae at all costs! ”

Keqing’s sharp declaration was enough for the Vision users to rush into the damp darkness, towards the portals spitting out uniformed Skirmishers and Mages. Ningguang had risen into the air, making the Adeptal platforms shine an even brighter yellow. The sight in front of Chongyun made his heart twinge. Behind him, a thousand feet below was Liyue, the nation he swore to rid of monsters. In front of him was possibly the biggest monster he had ever seen, not being driven away by the Yang energy burning inside him. Whether Osial counted as an evil spirit or demon or not was irrelevant. This would be the opportunity to prove himself as someone who deserved his place in his clan.

He returned his fish claymore’s hilt into his hand, moving to follow Xiangling, but was immediately blocked by a white wing. “Halt. One commands that you accompany one,” said Cloud Retainer. 

There was not enough time for the rational side of him to take control and reply. “With all due respect, Cloud Retainer, I have--”

“One has been informed of you by an old friend. Perhaps one has not walked the mortal realm enough to comprehend, but one...believes in the judgement of an old friend.”

Make that two Adepti who could talk fish. Chongyun was starting to wonder if the fish wasn’t talking to him because he found the exorcist too unskilled.

“One believes there is no time for this. Make haste!”

Below him, the sounds of battle raged on. Xiangling’s Pyronado roared into life, knocking back soldiers who dared lay a hand on Guoba. Keqing seemed to leave afterimages with her speed, striking down enemy after enemy from the electric shock generated by the rain. In their small platform, Chongyun and Cloud Retainer had a bird’s eye view of the reactions adorning the reception area of the Jade Chamber, but he could only look forward to the impending storm.

“Now, one commands you to summon an old friend’s assistant.”

“Assistant?” Did Cloud Retainer mean the big tuna? Granted, it clearly wasn’t the same fish as the claymore, but he never thought of the fish that had brought down Tartaglia as just a mere “assistant”. “But my burst can only hit enemies relatively near to me. I can’t aim kilometers away!”

Was he imagining things, or did he see the crane Adeptus roll her eyes? “One recommends that you widen the limits of your imagination.”

Were Adepti really always this cryptic? Ah, never mind. Chongyun was familiar with pushing himself to limits yet unknown anyway, so it didn’t take much for him to steady his stance beside the crane. If he failed, then maybe his Spirit Blades would knock one or two Fatui Agents off the platform. He took a deep breath, trying to absorb in the divinity he found himself in the presence in. His hands moved swiftly, settling into the position he’d used so many times to spell the end of his enemies. 

He felt like he had been punched from the back as he collapsed. As soon as he hit the ground, the Cryo user felt the previously stable platform rumble. He turned his head, and saw streaks of light cutting through the murky darkness, targeted to the gaping mouth of a yet unseen god.

“Was it--”

“One believes you should use your mortal eyes.”

Obediently, he squinted. The beams of light shot from the ballista all pointed towards a hollow gap in the wall of clouds crowning the rampaging waves of the sea below them. At the center of the gap was a small shadow, a curved shape was present. If it was visible from this distance, Chongyun knew it had to be huge . He knew that shape.

Despite himself, he let out a laugh of relief, letting the torrential rain wash his worries away. “One believes that this would be a decisive shot.”

The light rays converged with the gigantic fish in the middle and exploded into a searing light, harsh enough to even make the people on the platform below them stop their exchange of blows and cover their eyes. Chongyun pushed his face into the platform and shut his eyes to protect himself, expecting the rain attacking his body to weaken in the next few seconds. But the rain did not stop, and when he opened his eyes, he saw the same darkness as before.

“We have angered him! His attacks are only going to get stronger from here on!” yelled Xiao, in the most boisterous he’d ever heard his voice. 

The Vision users on the ground, whose exhaustion was apparent even from about 5 feet above, looked among themselves worriedly. Hu Tao had all but collapsed against Xingqiu, though her reckless fighting style did nothing to wipe her grin off her face. Keqing, similarly, looked even more tired than she was at the Golden House, with no emergency electrified tuna to lift her spirits. Their fighting spirit had already dwindled, and yet the storm showed no signs of stopping.

“Chongyun, listen to me.”

That didn’t sound like Cloud Retainer’s voice. This voice was a trembling bass, with much more power behind it than anything he ever heard. He glanced at Moon Carver and Mountain Shaper, and even to Ganyu, who he hadn’t heard speaking yet, but none of them were even looking at him. 

“Unsheath me, my friend.”

The dots connected, and Chongyun brought out his fish claymore. I know I was the one who bemoaned the Luxurious Sea Lord not talking to me, but this is far from good timing . “Throw me into the fray. I may have been kept prisoner by salt and time, but I once had the power to subjugate all under the sea and even my own bodily functions. This Overlord of the Vortex will be small fry to me.” 

He paused, not wanting to believe what the booming voice coming from the unblinking fish told him just yet. “But, Luxurious Sea Lord!”

“Such a long name, about as long as my lifespan. Worry not, Chongyun. I chose to be given as a present to you. I chose to fight alongside you. I see your potential. I am but a fish, salted over and dried under the sun. Your goals will be within your grasp even when I am not by your side.”

Chongyun attempted to ask for clarifications, but the fish had fallen silent, mouth sealed both physically and metaphysically. He nodded to himself as he rose off the platform, water battering against his body. He leapt off of the platform, tucking himself in and rolling onto the lowest platform to much attention from the tired Vision users. Keeping his momentum, he sprinted to the very edge. He could hear Xingqiu’s panicked voice calling his name, but everything, the rain drenching his clothes, the claps of foreboding thunder, the weight of his companion in his hand, had faded away. At the end of his tunnel vision was his destination.

Raising his hands above his head and letting out a yell, he prepared to throw his weapon as far as he could. At the very last second, he hurled the hard fish forward into the darkness. But he had misjudged one crucial thing: the water on the crystalline Jade Chamber entrance. Before he knew it, he was in the air.

Time slowed down as he saw the shadow of his friend cut across the air with incredible speed, alongside the shadow of the bottom of the Jade Chamber growing further and further. A surprised scream tore its way out of his throat, but the churning drop in his stomach tore away any ability of his to enunciate words and sounds.

How embarrassing, to meet your end like this. How pathetic, to fail at the most crucial moment.

Calling upon all the meditation he’d used to suppress himself in his everyday life, he closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind of everything. Heart be pure, evil be erased, mind be purged, world be cleared . If there remained good and pure people in Liyue, ready to defend Liyue as he had spectacularly failed at, then he could have some peace of mind.

The last thing he remembered was a bright light intruding on his faux void, and the stringent smell of Qingxin wrapping around him.

==

“...Tey...yun! Open...mou...or...yun Chili!”

Thank sheer instinct for encoding every possible combination of sounds to form “Jueyun Chili” into his mind to send him into a fight or flight state. He shot up instantly, after which he didn’t feel very thankful at all.

“Oh wow, Xingqiu, I didn’t think that would actually work,” Xiangling’s voice said. Tracing a path from the very real Jueyun Chili placed a dangerous distance from his mouth to the arm holding it confirmed that it was his chef friend who was speaking. 

“Of course it would work. I know him better than anyone on Teyvat!” Xingqiu’s voice responded. What he said was typical Xingqiu, but similarly, he knew Xingqiu best, too. He could tell just from his voice that the Guhua practitioner had had a weight lifted off his shoulders.

Chongyun glanced at his hands, and across the bedroom he was in. “How long was I out?”

“Not long, honestly. Adeptus Xiao caught you, while grumbling about how foolish you were. Which you definitely were,” replied Xingqiu. “But if foolishness was the key to saving Liyue from drowning, then I guess we should all enter the Fatui and their wonderful circus.”

He looked outside the window. Sure enough, what welcomed him was not a sky glazed over with clouds and rain, but a typical Liyue afternoon blue sky. As always, the Jade Chamber floated peacefully above the city in its usual place, threatening to swallow up the sun in its majesty. “So it really worked?!” he excitedly asked. He would have combusted himself if he had slipped and fallen from the Jade Chamber in front of all the prominent Allogenes of Liyue for no reason.

“Like a charm,” confirmed Xingqiu. “It was like Osial never even stood a chance. He was split into two and resealed beneath Guyun Stone Forest, all thanks to you. Or, maybe the credit here goes to Xiangling for picking such an auspicious fish to give to you.”

Xiangling shrugged, and faced Chongyun with a concerned look. “How are you feeling?”

“A bit sore, honestly, but nothing too major.” If he were asked, the cramps he got from not stretching before his rigid regimen of training all day kept him incapacitated for longer. “I should really apologize to you guys. My weapon is...well, was, a gift from you guys.” Chongyun already felt the embarrassment flushing his face. “I know you guys will say that you’d rather spend many more birthdays with me on a Liyue above ground, or things like that, but perhaps if I had acted more rationally with Childe at the Golden House, then Osial would have never been released, and I wouldn’t have needed to throw away your precious gift.”

His two blue-haired friends shared a look. “Actually, Chongyun…what did Cloud Retainer say to us again?”

Xingqiu cleared his throat. “‘One think mortals should use the gift of sight more often.’ Look outside the window, Chongyun.”

He looked outside again, and was about to ask what the Jade Chamber had to do with anything, but Xiangling pushed his head down, forcing him to look at the ground floor. On the ground below him, laid on a wide piece of cloth and surrounded by a considerable amount of white granules, was his trusty companion. 

He smiled, and his heart immediately soared. If someone had told his pre-birthday self that he would get so emotionally attached to a fish, he probably would have tried to exorcise them. “It didn’t take much work for Adeptus Xiao to help us relocate the fish,” Xingqiu said behind him. “Though I must say, I wish you had seen him try to use his spear to skewer some fish. That was a really memorable moment.”

“Of course, it’ll take some time before it becomes as hard as it was when I picked it off Beidou’s ship,” Xiangling corrected. “But Liyue’s really hot, and it’s not like I’ll ever have any shortage of salt at Wanmin’s, so I’ll have it ready before your next birthday, Chongyun! Don’t you worry!”

He pulled his head back into the room, grinning ear to ear. “Thank you so much! I’m not even sure if I deserve all of this, when it was really my weapon that did all the work…”

“Nonsense, the Sea Lord would have washed away our boat if he didn’t want to get caught by us and delivered to you,” Xingqiu assured him. “And it’s true. We’d much rather have you celebrate more birthdays with a not-drowned Liyue.”

He turned away with a hum. “Oh, speaking of which, we should tell Hu Tao that her elaborate hero funeral plans won’t be necessary.”

The exorcist couldn’t even find the genuine irritation to make a side comment about his eccentric kinda-friend as he smiled at them. 

“Speaking of which, I know it eventually saved Liyue and all that, but you still are immensely stupid for slipping from the Jade Chamber like that," Xingqiu continued admonishing him. "What on Teyvat occurred in your head to make you run off the Jade Chamber like a madman?”

He leaned against the window. As naturally as he would say "Good morning" or "The sky is blue", he replied “The fish talked to me.”

“What?!” Xiangling yelled. This time, she shared her offended look with Guoba, who had finished the Jueyun Chili. “And not to me, the one who works with fish for a living?! If I could ask the fish what flavors they wanted me to prepare them with, maybe I could create more fantastic dishes.”

“Maybe it’s precisely because you slaughter and prepare the Luxurious Sea Lord’s subject’s corpses for a living, Xiangling, that Chongyun’s weapon doesn’t want to talk to you,” suggested Xingqiu. Xiangling pouted, pulling Guoba into a hug and resting her chin on his head. However, all three of the beings in the room looked at him expectantly.

Chongyun couldn’t help but laugh. This was going to be a long story.