A Pair of Holy Assassins
Liyue was a disaster.
Zhongli turns out to have been Rex Lapis this whole time. He was always planning to give up the Gnosis and fake his death - for what, Childe can’t imagine, but it makes all his plans rather useless. When he reveals this and his plans with Scaramouche, Childe is pissed.
That’s not the worst part. The worst part is that, as he hands the Gnosis over, Scaramouche doesn’t return to Snezhnaya with it. Instead, he steals a boat and is halfway to Inazuma before anyone knows he’s not doing his duty. They learn this after the fact from an eyewitness report by Captain Beidou, whose ship it was that was stolen.
Upon his return to Snezhnaya, Childe is somewhat terrified of what the Tsaritsa will do to him for his failure. The Tsaritsa simply laughs at his concern.
“There was nothing you could have done,” she says before sending him off to Inazuma to hunt down Scaramouche.
In Inazuma, he finds war.
The Shogun’s Vision Hunt Decree has torn the islands apart. Watatsumi has mounted a resistance and is now a refuge for Vision-holders who wish to keep their Visions, as well as anyone else who disliked the Shogunate for whatever reason. Scaramouche, according to the Tsaritsa, would likely fall into the second group, looking for revenge for being cast aside, but Childe finds no evidence of his involvement on either side of the war.
Failing to find evidence of Scaramouche in the Resistance, he tracks down other Fatui involvement in the war. They’ve been supplying Delusions to the Resistance from a factory in Tatarasuna for years. Why anyone signed off on that, Childe can’t imagine, given the value of a Delusion, but it’s not his job to tell them to stop.
Childe doesn’t want to lend the Shogunate the legitimacy of having two Harbingers, so he leaves those islands to Signora - who’s been here this entire time, for some reason. Instead, he goes to Watatsumi Island - if Scaramouche will involve himself in this war, it will be on the side of the Resistance.
Watatsumi Island is surprisingly peaceful for being in the middle of a war. There are battalions of soldiers training, but no actual fighting. The biggest impact of the war, at least on this particular island, is the lack of food. Which Childe does his part to remedy, spending his days on one of the boats dodging patrols to bring in food. It’s the best place to hear any rumors, he reasons. (He spends his nights in a tent in a remote corner of the island, as the few inns and hotels on the island have been commandeered for soldier’s barracks.)
A week and a half later, he’s proven right when he hears the two soldiers come to collect the shipment of grain gossiping about a Harbinger coming to visit. They don’t immediately shut up when they see him, which means they’re not talking about him, and Signora wouldn’t risk losing the Shogun’s goodwill, which means that there’s a decent chance that it’s Scaramouche they’re talking about.
Childe presses them for more details. They almost immediately supply them, to Childe’s mild disapproval - anyone with that level of information should be better at keeping it quiet. They say that this Harbinger will be meeting with Kokomi - who Childe has gathered is the leader of the Resistance. Which Harbinger it is, they don’t know, but they can speculate that the meeting is on the influx of Delusions. And they give the precise date and time of the meeting - early morning a week from now.
As much as Childe would like to take on Scaramouche head-to-head, he knows that he doesn’t stand a chance - and regardless, the Foul Legacy draws far too much attention. Luckily, behind the shrine that’s been converted to an operations center is another shrine, much smaller and abandoned - and he’d brought one of Dottore’s new sniper rifles.
On the evening of the meeting, he lies flat, ready to shoot as soon as he sees Scaramouche. It’s not the best angle, but he’s a good enough marksman (with a rifle, anyways) to be confident that Scaramouche won’t leave alive.
An arrow hits beside his head, sending up a mini-explosion of earth. “That was a warning shot,” a voice above him says. It’s matched with a boot on his back. “Drop the gun, put your hands above your head, then you can get up slowly and explain to the Divine Priestess why you’re trying to kill her.”
Childe curses internally, then releases his hold on the rifle. When he raises his hands, they’re encased in some kind of shackles - he expects it’s a Geo construct of some kind. The gun is pulled away, and once his captor is satisfied he can’t resist, the boot is lifted from his back.
He rolls over - away from where the arrow hit - and gets the first look at the person who managed to capture him. Drawn bow with an arrow pointing at him - he’d expect no less. Watatsumi Resistance, and high-ranking. Then he sees the ears and tail and bites back a laugh despite the situation. He’d been captured by a dog hybrid. He takes Childe’s Vision and Delusion, somehow knowing exactly where Childe keeps them, then returns the Vision encased in stone. Childe can still feel his connection to it, but can tell that he won’t be able to use it.
His captor releases the bow and it dissolves into wherever weapons go when they’re not in use. Then he walks Childe to their makeshift operations center, where he finds Scaramouche and who he assumes to be Kokomi waiting for him.
“Your assassin, exactly as I predicted,” says Scaramouche as if bored, waving a hand at Tartaglia. He looks ready to continue, but Childe interrupts.
“I’m here to kill him, not you,” he says quickly, pointing at Scaramouche.
“Whyever would you want to kill your fellow Harbinger?” Scaramouche asks in a mocking imitation of confusion.
“You know perfectly well you turned traitor,” Childe spits back.
“Such an outrageous claim,” Scaramouche says. “And you with no proof.”
“Signed orders from the Tsaritsa don’t count?” Childe asks. To one of the soldiers, he says “A scroll in my back pocket. I’d get it myself, but…” He holds up his hands encased in stone.
Kokomi nods and the soldier grabs the scroll and hands it to her.
Childe considers saying something about their lack of caution, but decides against it. She scans it, then announces “Faked,” soaking it with her Vision and rendering it illegible.
As Gorou drags him off to a cell, he hears Kokomi tell Scaramouche “It appears we owe you a great debt.”
The cell where he’s to be kept is alone in the open air, as seems to be common in Inazuma for anyone who isn’t the Shogunate. Once he’s locked up, he asks Gorou to remove the binding on his hands. Gorou, apparently reluctantly, partly agrees, reducing it to a pair of shackles. As night falls, he tries - and fails - to sleep. Comfort isn’t an issue, but Scaramouche outsmarting him again so quickly stings.
He must have drifted off at some point because he’s woken up near midnight by someone shaking him. He’s alert in a second, and seeing that it’s Gorou waking him, he immediately tries to summon a blade. He fails, of course, due to the strange encasing on his Vision.
“Come with me quietly,” Gorou whispers. “We know your orders are real.”
Childe blinks in surprise, then nods and follows. If this is some kind of trap, he’ll have a better chance of escaping outside of the cage.
Gorou leads him to a secluded meeting room where Kokomi is waiting for the two of them. As soon as the doors close, Childe says “Can I ask what’s going on now?” He’s rather exasperated by the cloak-and-dagger nonsense this is turning into.
Kokomi answers a different question. “We know that Scaramouche turned traitor. We knew even before you showed up. But we’re not in a position to fight another god, so we took him in, despite the risk to us.”
She pauses, and Childe notices just how tired she looks. “So I have an offer for you. You get our help to kill Scaramouche, and your freedom, and you reclaim whatever it was he stole from you. You keep supplying us with Delusions and you kill Kujou Sara.”
Childe considers. It’s not a bad deal, and from what he knows of Sara he can take her fairly easily. But he does have a secondary goal in Inazuma - one that Kokomi should already know after reading his orders.
So he makes a counteroffer. “We kill Scaramouche, I kill Sara, I show you how to use a Delusion safely - well, relatively safely - then I join the Resistance until the Shogun is dead, on the condition that I get her Gnosis.”
Kokomi quickly agrees, and Childe belatedly realizes that this was probably her goal in the first place. Not that it matters - he’d still agree to that deal if it was offered, but it annoys him that he’s still so easily manipulated.
They shake on it, then begin planning. Gorou removes the case on his Vision, weakens his restraints enough for them to be breakable, and then returns him to his cage.
The next morning, he’s woken by a nervous-looking messenger. He says quickly “You have been found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death.
Childe pretends to despair - not very well, he thinks - and to fight back - better, but still not very well - as six soldiers drag him off to his execution. It’s all for the benefit of whoever’s watching, of course - all six of his “jailers” know what’s going on.
He’s put on a platform in front of three people - Kokomi, Gorou, and Scaramouche. The six guards leave without binding him in any way, which should be Scara’s first and only warning, but he’s too caught up in arrogance to notice.
“The would-be assassin, thanks to you,” Kokomi says. “If you would like the honor, you may kill him.”
Scaramouche quickly agrees, then makes a show of summoning an Electro ax, examining it, polishing it somehow, and a few practice swings, gloating all the while. And so he’s entirely unprepared for two blades at his throat - one from Childe and one from Gorou - and a hand inside his chest grabbing the Gnosis. He tries backing away and is stopped by another knife in Kokomi’s hand.
As soon as the Gnosis is recovered and Childe’s hand removed - which takes all of ten seconds - Gorou removes his blade from Scaramouche’s throat and stabs him through the heart.
As he sees Scaramouche’s body start to smolder, Childe shoves the Gnosis into Gorou’s hands, says “Run!” and activates his Foul Legacy.
Kokomi and Gorou both turn and run at the panic in the Childe’s voice.
Childe summons as much of an Electro shield as he can, then also runs. He’s caught up to Gorou within a second, after which he shadows him. (Kokomi has wildly outpaced both of them with her Vision.) When he’s counted fourteen seconds from Scaramouche’s death, he knocks Gorou to the ground, covering him.
He does so barely in time for the massive explosion that comes from Scaramouche’s body. It easily overpowers his rushed shields, a wave of force washing over him.
As soon as he gets off Gorou - who thankfully isn’t crushed by the weight of the Foul Legacy - he transforms back into his regular form. Gorou picks himself up and asks “Was that really necessary?” Then he turns around and sees the smoking crater and acknowledges that yes, it was necessary.
“What was that?” Kokomi asks, having returned from over the ocean. “The death of a god,” answers Childe. He’s looking a bit roughed up - the rapid activation of the Foul Legacy takes its toll.
“I know about that,” Kokomi answers. “I mean, what did you do?”
Childe winces. It’s not something he wants to make widely known. “It’s a Foul Legacy form. Abyssal teachings designed to fight gods. And that is all I will say on that.”
Neither of them is satisfied with that answer, but neither care enough to press.
“And now I owe you a death,” Childe states. “Although you may have to wait a few days for me to recover.”
During his recovery, Childe asks Gorou for the Gnosis back. He complies, pulling it out of a pocket, then asks why he was trusted with it. “Did you expect me to use it to shield myself?”
Childe laughs. “It was nothing to do with trust. But the Foul Legacy is incompatible with such a concentration of divine power, and you were closer.”
Killing Kujou Sara goes far smoother than either attempt to kill Scaramouche. He indulges himself with a one-on-one fight, walking into the encampment and challenging her to a duel. She accepts, likely from overconfidence from recently beating an oni for his Vision. Childe can certainly see why they want her dead. If she has as much control over her soldiers as she does her body, she’d make a dangerous enemy on the battlefield. It’s a surprisingly tough fight - Childe is forced to resort to using his Delusion a few times, but he wins out eventually.
After that one fight, he takes the role of common soldier, declining all offers of any higher rank. “I’m a weapon to be pointed, not a commander,” he says.
Very few of the battles after that are remotely interesting - with the loss of Sara and the addition of Childe, the Resistance steadily pushes through Kannazuka and prepares for a direct invasion of Inazuma City.
Of course, proper use of the Delusions that are still flowing in help. Safety won’t stop them draining their users, but it does reduce it - and more importantly, makes them more effective and less prone to backlash.
Between battles, Childe, Gorou, and Kokomi (nominally, as she’s rarely present) begin their plans to kill the Shogun. Once more, it can’t be a straight fight - contrary to popular opinion among the Harbingers, Childe knows when there’s a fight he can’t win. So another assassination attempt it is.
Childe’s first plan is to steal into the Tenshukaku, taking the Shogun by surprise when she’s conducting business.
Gorou points out that there’s nowhere in the Tenshukaku that has both a free shot to the Shogun and is far enough away that they won’t be caught in the blast from her death. Then he proposes baiting her out and taking a shot from there. Unfortunately, by Childe’s insistence, it needs to be somewhere secluded to avoid loss of civilian life, and the Shogun only leaves for public appearances.
After about a week of going nowhere, Childe bemoans his lack of shielding abilities. Gorou asks if he can use the Gnosis to create better shields, and Childe answers “I don’t have enough power over others to use it effectively.”
He then pauses and studies Gorou. After far too long for comfort, he says “But you do.”
Gorou raises both eyebrows. “You’d trust me with that?”
Childe sighs. “After the Liyue fiasco, I wouldn’t trust anyone with it. But you’ve returned it before…” He trails off, and the subject is dropped for now.
After another week of increasingly harebrained schemes, none of which have any chance of working, and a stall in pushing into Inazuma City because the Shogun would likely defend it, Childe agrees to loan Gorou the Gnosis. “And this way, I still have the option of the Foul Legacy if it’s needed.”
After that, the planning is quite straightforward, for a nice change. Wait until the Shogun comes out for some ceremony, take a shot at her, and Gorou contains the energy with the Gnosis once his shields are strong enough - which shouldn’t be that long, considering his natural affinity for Geo.
These plans all go out the window when, as the Resistance defends Kannazuka, the Shogun joins the battle.
Up until that point, as was now standard, the Resistance had been fighting off the Shogunate fairly easily. They’d been pushing the offensive for long enough that any offensive had been seen as foolish at best. Among the soldiers, it’s the subject of more than a few jokes.
As soon as Childe sees the Shogun, floating above the rest of the army, he curses and activates his Foul Legacy. He shoots off a few arrows, hoping for the rest of the archers to follow his lead, then the distance is closed. He quickly comes in behind her, turning her attention to him from the rest of the army. And then they fight.
The Shogun isn’t nearly as strong as Childe expected. Granted, she can’t use the Musou no Hitachi without destroying her entire army, but her offense feels… lacking. It’s almost as if she’s holding back. Her defense, however, is impeccable. She can perfectly block Childe’s strikes as fast as he can make them. The occasional volley of arrows that comes from behind is vaporized before they touch her - Childe’s not entirely sure how, but assumes it’s some sort of Electro aura.
Childe backs up, ignoring the volley of arrows coming at him - with his Foul Legacy armor, they’re little more than an annoyance. The Shogun follows, pressing the attack. Once they reach the edge of the ocean, Childe continues backing up, hovering over the water. The Shogun follows. As the two fight, an arrow narrowly misses the Shogun. This wouldn’t be notable except for the fact that it was close enough that it should be vaporized but wasn’t. And also from the fact that it hadn’t curved down over such a distance.
From slightly behind the front lines, Gorou curses. Then he shoots another arrow, letting it charge longer than normal to consolidate the power of the Gnosis.
After the arrow misses, more fire. The Shogun manages to dodge most of them, but some connect, and they cause significant damage. Childe quickly presses the advantage from this, driving the Shogun back to the bulk of the army.
Another arrow hits, and the Shogun stumbles. Childe attacks from above, and the Shogun blocks. Childe keeps pressing down, and the Shogun drops into the water.
As soon as her foot touches the water, Childe uses it, a surge of water engulfing her and dragging her down. She attempts one last strike but the water binds her, and Childe finishes the fight with a decapitating strike.
As soon as he’s won, he speeds away from the body in preparation for the explosion of divine energy.
It never comes. Instead, the body simply dissolves. Childe questions this, but decides that he can question it later and returns to the fight on the shore, attacking from the rear. On the shore, as soon as the Shogunate soldiers see the Shogun fall, the battle turns into a rout. The soldiers continue fighting, but all hope that the attack is successful is lost.
After that battle and the death of the Shogun, the Resistance finalizes plans for the direct invasion of Inazuma City. Now that the Shogun is dead, there’s nothing stopping them, and they decide to press the advantage as soon as they can. Of course, this leaves no time for considering anything else, including why the Shogun’s death wasn’t anywhere near as destructive as it should be or why she had no Gnosis. Childe raises some concerns about this, but eventually agrees that there can be time for this later.
The landing on the south of Byakko Plain goes as well as can be expected, in large part because of the loss of morale from the death of the Shogun. The Shogunate is cleared off the plains quickly, after which the battle devolves into individual scuffles in the streets of Inazuma City.
The first order of business upon capturing the city, even before clearing it of the remaining Shogunate soldiers, is destroying the Statue of the Omnipresent God - now no longer omnipresent. All ninety-eight Visions are removed from it - ninety-six of them to be returned to their owners, the last two having died, to be given to anyone who can activate them. And then a dozen soldiers with sledgehammers - no one knows where they got the sledgehammers, nor does anyone care to ask - destroy it. Well, as much as can be done with sledgehammers - Gorou takes over with his Vision once there’s only solid stone left.
While mopping up the last of the Shogunate soldiers, Childe enters the Tenshukaku alone. There are no soldiers there that he can find, everyone having abandoned it after the Shogun’s death. There are a few terrified children who’d come in to hide from the fighting. Childe removes his mask and tells them how to get out of the city without attracting any attention. They’re more than happy to listen.
In what appears to be a deserted corridor, the back of Childe’s neck prickles. Out of pure instinct, he throws himself to the floor, barely dodging a thunderbolt.
He’s back on his feet within seconds, looking for where the sudden attack came from. It doesn’t repeat, but the Shogun steps out of an alcove and draws her sword from within her chest.
Childe curses internally, then sends a prayer to whoever might be listening that he survives this. He’s already overused his Foul Legacy lately, and without it, he doesn’t stand a chance. (Even with it, he needed help to beat the Shogun last time.) He’d wonder how the Shogun survived, but he’s too busy surviving himself.
While Childe is desperately dodging the Shogun’s attacks, Gorou gets a sudden feeling that he’s needed elsewhere. He summons a binding around the legs of the soldier he’s fighting to end that fight quickly, then runs for the Tenshukaku.
As soon as he enters the building, he knows exactly where he’s needed. He slows down slightly as he sheathes his sword, draws his bow and lets the Geo energy accumulate. He runs through a hole in the wall, barely dodging another lightning bolt as he does so.
There’s a moment of confusion when he sees the Shogun before he decides that there’s time to puzzle that out later and looses the arrow. It hits the Shogun in a spray of earth that buys Childe time to catch his breath.
His bow dissolves and he draws his sword again. Their only chance is to keep the fight at close distance - for some reason, the Shogun’s attacks only get stronger with distance.
Gorou begins the offensive and Childe joins a few seconds later. Without his Foul Legacy, he can’t do much, but he does serve as a distraction.
Then he gets an idea. “Box her in,” he calls to Gorou, rolling out of the way of another lightning bolt.
Gorou nods and thrusts his sword forwards. As expected, it’s dodged, but a wall still rises from floor to ceiling behind her. The Shogun counterattacks, in response to which Childe retreats behind Gorou, who blocks with another wall summoned, this one more transparent.
Electro energy explodes from the Shogun in all directions. Gorou falls to his knees maintaining the walls, but they do survive. However, the other physical walls - and the ceiling - are blown out. (The floor, being built on stone, survives.) Childe dashes forwards and places a hand on the Geo wall, summoning three Electro sides to the box encasing the Shogun.
The Shogun begins a consistent assault on the back wall. Childe electrifies it, making it harder and adding a backlash - not that the backlash does much.
Childe sees an opportunity in the small space and summons his narwhal underneath the Shogun. The small space constricts its size, but it also makes it impossible to dodge, sending the Shogun flying and into the electrified ceiling, knocking her out.
Gorou resummons his bow, opens a small gap in the wall, and takes aim through it.
He’s stopped by a voice calling “Wait!” from behind them. In an instant, Childe has turned around with an arrow drawn and pointed at a woman who had apparently appeared from nowhere.
“Why should I?” asks Gorou, not taking his eyes or his aim off the Shogun.
“I’ll give you the Gnosis in exchange for her life,” the mysterious woman answers, drawing said Gnosis from a pocket.
“The Gnosis and a promise from her to abdicate, leave Inazuma, and never return,” Gorou counteroffers.
“And an explanation on how she returned from the dead,” Childe adds.
She sighs and agrees. Gorou closes the hole in the wall, not taking his eyes off the Shogun.
“The two Shoguns is easy to explain,” she says as she hands the Gnosis to Childe. “The one you fought first was a puppet designed for day-to-day rule.”
Which would be why it didn’t count as a god’s death, Childe thinks.
“And your oath to abdicate and never return,” Gorou says to the Shogun.
The Shogun doesn’t answer, instead making one last desperate assault on the walls. Gorou reopens the gap, and before any attack can get through it, sends an arrow through the Shogun’s head.
“Get the other two walls,” Childe commands. “I can’t hold it.”
Gorou curses, then summons another two walls, while Childe removes the Electro ceiling. A wave of Electro comes from the Shogun’s body, entirely directed up.
The mysterious woman vanishes as suddenly as she appeared.
“That was… odd,” Childe says. And then they both return to the city, finishing the sweep for the Shogunate soldiers.
After the cleanup, Childe finds Kokomi - who’s extremely busy with the administrative work from taking over the country.
“The Shogun is dead and you’ve won,” he says. “And I must return to Snezhnaya.”
She nods without looking up.
The last thing he needs to do before returning is get the Geo Gnosis from Gorou. Gorou hands it over, but as soon as Childe touches it, he pulls his hand back sharply from the burn.
“Apparently I can’t hold more than one,” he says. “And since you won’t want to come to Snezhnaya with me, I’ll be back.”
“I can come with you,” Gorou offers. “The war’s over, I’m sure I can be spared for a few days.” Truth be told, he’s been at a bit of a loose end since the war had ended.
Childe nods. “Excellent - that should save some time. If you’d like to stay in Snezhnaya, I’m always recruiting for interesting people like you.”
Gorou blinks in shock. After a moment, he nods. “Maybe. I don’t know if I’ll be needed here again… but I’ll consider it.”
Childe grins. It’s a better answer than he’d expected. “In that case, the ship leaves in three hours on the tide… the two-way one.”
Gorou laughs, then goes off to pack hurriedly.
The trip to Snezhnaya goes quite smoothly. Gorou has questions about the Fatui that Childe is mostly happy to answer - although Gorou’s not always happy to hear the answers. Childe also continues his attempted recruitment of Gorou, which leads to a large number of their conversations being about the Fatui in some way or another.
The first thing Childe does upon arrival in Snezhnaya is tell Gorou exactly how the meeting with the Tsaritsa will go. She tends to be rather strict when it comes to respect, and while Childe thinks that with two Gnoses, he’s bought enough goodwill for her to disregard any slip-ups, he doesn’t want to take the chance.
Childe enters the throne room beside Gorou. They proceed to the base of the Tsaritsa’s throne and kneel, and when the Tsaritsa says “Rise,” Childe proceeds to his lesser throne, while Gorou stands behind it.
The Tsaritsa begins “Tartaglia. Your return from Inazuma comes slightly later than I had hoped, but no later than I expected. Report.”
“Your Majesty,” Tartaglia says. He reaches into his chest for the Gnosis and gestures for Gorou to do the same. “I report success on all counts.”
The Tsaritsa is impressed, although she does not show it. “Very good,” she says. She walks to Tartaglia’s throne and accepts the two Gnoses. Both of them are curious at how she can hold more than one, and both are disciplined enough to not ask.
After their report to the Tsaritsa, Childe gives Gorou a tour of the city, who is suitably impressed by the landmarks. On the journey over, Gorou had decided to stay for a few days - what’s the point of a four-day journey if he’s only going to stay for a few hours?
Childe leaves the city the morning after their arrival, going to somewhere in the country. He gives Gorou no details.
Gorou spends those few days alone, mostly touring the city. He does, however, spend some time asking questions about the Fatui - he trusts Childe, but the person trying to recruit you might not always be the best source of information. He finds that Childe was entirely truthful, leaving very little out.
He returns a few days later, ready to go out on another mission.
“Where will you be going next?” Gorou asks.
“Natlan, most likely,” Childe answers. “We’re still hunting Gnoses, Dottore’s in Sumeru, and Arlecchino in Fontaine.”
Gorou nods. “I’ve always wanted to visit there,” he says.
“You could come with me,” Childe says, half-jokingly.
Gorou laughs. “I don’t suppose I could join on a trial basis?” he asks.
Childe nods. “I can work something out.”