Genshin Impact: Following the Winds

The ocean waves. Gently crashing onto the sands. A rhythmic song of the planet; a symphony between the earth and the moon.

That was the first thing I saw and heard when I woke up in a panic. After all, the last thing I remembered was getting my life choked out of me by Ronove. Yet here I was now, standing on a beach that seemed to stretch on forever, accompanied by the ocean, lit by a cloudless sky. The contrast was so shocking that it stunned me for a good whole minute.

But before I could ponder further,

"Hey! Why're you being all glum?"

I blinked, and turned to see a girl approaching me. A girl with fair skin and black eyes, wearing swimwear fitting for the beach. Still, the amount of skin she was showing made me somewhat embarrassed, and I couldn't help but look away slightly.

She seemed to notice it and smiled slyly. "Aww, you getting embarrassed, ██████?"

I winced. She'd…said something, didn't she? "Of course not." I said, rolling my eyes. I gave her a stick of ice cream, and she giggled as she thanked me.

I then blinked, and looked down to see that I was holding a stick of ice cream for myself. My brows furrowed. When did I-, no, why was I even acting like this? It almost felt as if I was barely in control, living through the memories of someone else.

…Hold on, was this because I'd caught the gaze of Remembrance?

"██████? You there?"

I winced again, but unconsciously shook my head as I smiled. "I'm fine. The heat's just getting to me." A frown pulled my lips as I fanned myself. "I know you said that Okinawa's going to be hot, but this is a bit much, isn't it?"

She smirked. "It's summer, darling~" She giggled. "It's meant to be hot!"

"That something you learnt from your visual novels?" I snarked back, though there was little heat to it.

She pouted. "So mean~" She then smirked as she pulled out her phone. "And besides, this is the best place to take my chance!"

I stared blankly at her phone, with Genshin Impact already opened. My eyes twitched, before a tired smile lifted my lips. "Seriously?" My expression then went blank. "Wait, please don't tell me we went all the way here just for you to roll that goddamn Gacha?"

She giggled. "Of course not~" She winked. "Buuut, my pookie did say that she got her 5★ after going to the beach, so maybe I can have some of her luck as well!"

I took a weak breath. "All this…"

It was hard to decipher what this 'me' was feeling, what with me still being driven around like a puppet. But I could vaguely tell that he wasn't really all that angry. It felt like he was somewhat expecting her to do so, considering she was a notorious Gacha addict who was currently playing three different Gacha games at the same time.

"Come on…!" She prayed as she rolled the Gacha, causing the animation to play. "Give me Nuevi please! I just want my dragon baby!"

Curiously, I glanced at the phone, and then winced when she suddenly shot up, bonking my chin with her head. Her happiness stemmed from the golden glow that suddenly appeared, and as I was rubbing my chin, I saw her pressing her face onto the phone, whispering maniacally.

Then,

"NOOOOO!" She fell onto her knees and screamed in defeat, clutching her phone as if it'd done something terrible to her and her family.

I quickly glanced around, and sighed in relief when I noticed that the area around us was practically empty. "So loud…" I sighed as I pulled her up. "Stop acting like an idiot. It couldn't have been that bad." I offered a smile. "I mean, a 5★ is still a 5★, right?" Was what I said, though I could feel that this 'me' said that mostly because he knew nothing about Genshin Impact.

Faux sobbing, the girl showed her phone to me. "I got the damned twink!"

But what I saw shocked me deeply.

It was…me. Or rather it was my outfit as Wendy. The image it showed was exactly the same as that first image I seemingly pulled out nowhere when Lumine and I were drafting our plans for Inazuma. 

But…that meant this 'me' wasn't Venti.

Then who is this? Who am I?

"██████?" She asked suddenly, her eyes worried. "You okay?"

A shiver crept up my spine as I heard that odd name she was calling me, but no matter how I tried, I couldn't hear it. Couldn't even attempt to understand it. 

It was different this time. Instead of it being hidden by a fog I could parse through at the cost of immense pain, but this wasn't that. No matter how hard I tried to reach for it, it was as if the memory of it was gone. Wiped entirely from existence.

Yet this beach, this girl—everything felt so familiar.

"██████?!"

Slowly, I turned to her. And my eyes went wide as I saw the world around us shattering. The sands, the beach, even the girl herself—everything was turning into glass, and shattering. The sky rained with shards of broken glass, reflecting a myriad of colors from a nonexistent sun.

One of those shards fell before me. 

The image it reflected was that of a mangled corpse.

"Venti!"

I gasped as my eyes shot open. My heart hammered against my chest, and I rasped as I tried to breathe. I squeezed my eyes shut as I tried to steady my breathing, but it just made me feel like I was choking.

"Venti! Calm down!" A gentle hand came onto my shoulder. "Calm down. You're safe now."

I latched onto the familiar voice, and slowly, my breathing slowed. When it felt like I wasn't going to fall unconscious again, I slowly opened my eyes. And I blinked when I saw a familiar face. "Guizhong?"

She smiled cheerily. "Good morning!"

I stared for a moment. "Am…I back in Liyue?"

She shook her head, and gestured to the window. I turned to it, and my eyes widened as I saw the familiar sight of Gourou Village. Which meant this room was the inn room I was temporarily staying in. "Wait, but what're you doing here?" My eyes narrowed in worry. "Didn't you say that going here would be bad for-?"

"There is no worry." Another familiar voice said, and it was then I realized that Morax was also in the room, standing on the other side of my bed. "Baal and I have struck an accord. In light of recent events, Liyue, Inazuma, and Watatsumi have entered an alliance."

My jaw opened and closed for a moment, before I sighed. "Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag, huh?"

Morax hummed. "Apologies. I understand that you wish to keep the truth hidden, but transparency is an important aspect of establishing a working Contract."

Guizhong smiled apologetically. "But at least the common people still don't know. We made sure to keep ourselves hidden when we arrived."

I nodded slowly. Small mercies, I suppose. "Where's Lumine, by the way?"

"She is busy acclimatizing herself with the new prosthesis Guizhong had created for her." Morax explained. "I believe Baal's sister is with her as well."

I nodded, and then stopped. "A…prosthesis?"

Guizhong hissed, and even Morax frowned slightly. "She, uh, lost her right arm when she fought." She said, and then quickly continued when she saw my horrified stare. "She said she's fine with it! If anything, she seemed somewhat…happy? Something about looking more 'dapper'."

I took a shaky breath. Right. We'd all seen how overwhelmingly powerful that Agent of Celestia was. Honestly, it was a miracle that the most Lumine had lost was her arm. 

It didn't make it feel any better.

"Venti…"

"So you know about Celestia now?" I asked, clearly diverting.

Guizhong stared at me with worry, but Morax was there to explain. "We did, yes. Orobashi ensured we understood the magnitude of what had occurred." He closed his eyes. "In light of what I had learnt, I have officially resigned my position as the Geo Archon and severed our ties with Celestia."

"...what?"

That-, huh? Wait, but that meant that-!

"And by that he means he slaughtered the envoys that came to us to 'explain' what happened." Guizhong added. "Unfortunately, we had learnt the truth prior to their calling, and so Morax responded in kind." She smiled coldly. "Let's just say that we're no longer playing along."

…right. Okay. Sure. "No wonder you feel a little different." I said, trying to process the world-shaking revelations I'd learnt one after another. "So that means you no longer have your Gnosis, huh?"

He nodded. "I have temporarily given my Gnosis to Lumine."

I hummed. Yeah, that made sense. Aside from me, Lumine was probably the safest person to give the Gnosis to. 

…well. One more question remained unanswered.

I took a breath. "How long have I been asleep?"

Guizhong blinked, and then smiled. "Don't worry! It's only been four days since then!" She winked, though it wasn't hard to see the relief in her eyes. "Morax didn't need to encase you in amber again!"

I huffed, smiling slightly. "That's good. I don't want another repeat of being carried around." And the rumors that brought about, but I didn't need to mention that.

Guizhong smirked. "You'd like that, won't you?"

"No." I answered plainly. Guizhong just continued giggling.

Morax stared at the two of us silently, looking slightly confused as to why carrying me would be so terrible.

Then the door opened, and in came the rest of our friends. 

"Wendy-sama!" Hanami was the first to call out, immediately rushing to my bedside. "You're okay! I thought-, when Orobashi-sama brought you back, we-, it was-" The rest of her words fell away as she began to sob. "I-I'm glad y-you're okay…!"

I smiled sadly as I gently patted her head. "Sorry." I whispered, eyes soft. "It must've been scary, huh?"

Hanami sniffed, pressing herself closer to me.

As I comforted the girl, I turned to the others. Everyone else was there; Orobashi, Saiguu, even the two goddesses. They'd all converged in this room, seeming to have sensed that I was now awake.

But my eyes immediately turned to Lumine, standing just behind Ei, subtly hiding her right arm from me. Or the metallic arm that now served as her right arm.

I grit my teeth as I caught sight of it, and Lumine seemed to have realized so as well as she finally stepped into the room. "Hey, sleeping beauty." She began, smiling awkwardly as she waved her prosthetic hand. "How're you doing?"

"...good morning, Lumine."

The room fell silent after that. I stared at her, and she returned it. It took me all I had to keep my eyes from drifting back to her new arm, and Lumine seemed to be having a similar struggle in keeping her eyes locked onto mine.

Silently, Guizhong led everyone out of the room to give us some privacy. And as the door closed behind them, Lumine's smile finally fell. "Yeah, that was a stupid question, wasn't it?" She said, laughing tiredly. "Who'd be okay after that? Watatsumi came way too close to being completely destroyed."

I nodded slowly. "It indeed did." I gulped as I glanced out the window. "How is the rest of Watatsumi?"

Her eyes lit up slightly. "Oh, it's all fine. Orobashi went into overdrive to fix everything up." She smiled. "Honestly, he did an awesome job. The island's back to how it was before. Wouldn't have known that a battle happened at all if we didn't go through it ourselves."

I smiled back. "That's good." 

We fell silent again. Inevitably, my eyes turned towards her prosthetic arm, and I gulped. "How is your…?"

"This?" Lumine grinned as she held her new arm up. It seemed to be made from a combination of metal and amber, with little puffs of steam occasionally leaving through small vents dotted across the arm. "Pretty dope, huh? Wasn't expecting Guizhong to go all steampunk on me when I gave her some inspiration. It can even do this!" Her hand then began spinning independently from the rest of her arm. "Cool, huh?"

I smiled slightly at her enthusiasm. "And it isn't debilitating in any way?"

She chuckled. "Nope. Honestly, it's kinda scary how good Guizhong is." She huffed. "Wouldn't be surprised if she joins the Genius Society later on."

I blinked. I didn't know what the Genius Society was, but it sounded familiar. 

Lumine then gazed at my neck for a moment before she looked away. "And, uh, how about you?" She smiled worriedly. "You good? Any pain?"

I tilted my head. "I feel well enough." But she shook her head and dragged her finger across her own neck. Confused, I brought out a mirror from my Inventory and pointed it at my neck.

And my breath caught as I saw the large bruise across my neck, accompanied by strange jagged marks that stretched from my neck and up to my chin. "I…didn't notice." I admitted, cautiously running a hand across the bruise. It didn't hurt when I touched it, at least.

"That's…good?" Lumine said, and then nodded. "Yeah. No pain's good."

I smiled.

And then we fell silent once more.

…

"I'm sorry."

"Hmm?" Lumine raised an eyebrow. "What for?"

My hands clenched. "This all began because of me, did it not?" A sardonic smile came onto my lips. "Watatsumi would not have come into Celestia's gaze had I not changed its destiny, and that would not have occurred had I not decided to go on this foolish venture." I laughed tiredly. "Perhaps you would have retained your arm if I-"

"Stop." Lumine said, kneeling by my bedside and taking my hand into hers. "Maybe that's true. Maybe Watatsumi never would've come that close to being destroyed." She glared. "But that's not important. Whatever the case, your decision to go here saved people. At the end of the day, your actions helped push Teyvat to a new tomorrow." She grinned playfully as she gently knocked my shoulder. "So stop worrying, you big damn hero."

I stared, and then broke into a laugh. "A way with words as always." My smile softened. "And thank you. For everything, really."

"Venti, you're my pookie." She grinned. "I'm happy just being here."

I chuckled. Ah, I remain unsure on what some of her words mean, but there was an undeniable fondness it brought me when I heard her call me that. 

I closed my eyes and smiled. 

I truly am glad to have met her that night.