Chapter Text
Du, du, du… your phone buzzes on the dresser next to you, playing the same maddening ringtone as it did daily. You let out a slight groan before turning over in your sheets and placing your hand over the screen, searching for the “dismiss” button mentally. Once that fails, you lift your torso up and bring the phone to your face and turn it off with a sigh. You place your phone on your lap and look outside of the window, it’s mostly foggy and the skies are painted gray with a slight blue undertone — the signs of an upcoming windy day.
You snuggle yourself back into the covers and tuck the phone in with you. You check the time, I have one hour before class, you mentally tell yourself as you open YouTube to scroll through Genshin Impact content. “Secret tip to use with Furi—” skip. “Did you know that Ayato’s passive—” skip. “Wanderer’s re-run is closer than we think,” the female voice stated and your attention was hooked, “Not only that, Furazan will also be alongside his re-run.” You open the comments for confirmation, to no avail, your next move was the internet. “Wanderer next re-run,” you typed into the search bar and started scrolling for results, and there it was, it was confirmed and true. Excitement from the news causes your lips to curve up and a slight smile to embellish your face.
You sigh into your covers, nestling your head under and feeling the warmth of your body heat and the insulation. Closing your eyes you begin to drift off to sleep once again. You start dreaming of Teyvat. After finishing Scaramouche's quest, you almost always had him on your mind. If the characters were real, would their relationships be as complicated as the ones here? You imagine Scaramouche— the Wanderer, you mean, trying to confess his love. He’s practicing in front of a tree, but he can’t look at the tree because he imagines his crush standing there instead, his cheeks flushed and averted gaze towards the ground — you absentmindedly chuckle at what you envisioned. Can he even blush? you think to yourself.
You suddenly see the trees wobbling as a loud song started to play, and it sounded a lot like… your ringtone? Oh, you’re dreaming.
Your eyes snap open as you grab your phone hazily, still recovering from your reverie.
“Hello?” you say into the phone, voice hushed from disuse.
“WHERE ARE YOU?!” your best-friend practically screams at you.
“Wha—”
“IT’S THIRTY MINUTES PASS, ARE YOU COMING OR NOT?!”
You remove your phone from your ear and check the time. “Shit…” is all you can muster, “I’ll be there in ten minutes, minimum.” You hear him rustle his phone, probably so he can make a loud noise, “YOU’D BETTER BE!” Your phone vibrates from the sheer volume and you can’t help but snort at his antics.
–
The class in question was psychology. You and your best-friend, Yuli, have a project to present. Yuli said he would take the fall of presenting to the class when you first were assigned to this project. “You owe me at least one pack of double-packed chocolate chip cookies,” he had said to you with a playful smile, in turn you had thanked him with a small smile of your own. You were both always there for each other, ever since you were kids — when you cried, he cried, it was always like that for you two. He was one of the only reasons you weren’t alone, through thick and thin, he stuck with you just as you stuck with him.
The presentation went by quickly, Yuli was always great at catering to an audience and saying just the right words in any scenario. After you both sit down in your respective seats, next to each other of course, he turns to you and whispers, “I didn’t forget about those cookies by the way.” You deadpan at him and he tries to abstain himself from laughing at your reaction. “Don’t give me that look, would you rather that I ask you to make a ten-pull on the standard banner?” mirth in his eyes as he watches your eyes slightly widen at his question.
–
After your class, you wave goodbye to Yuli and start walking towards the campus’ lobby. You have about two more classes left, you could make do. Before your next class, you need to quickly condense your resin before it capped — you didn't have time to farm domains yesterday since you were multitasking between reading Scaramouche fan-fiction and doing your homework. Many may think it’s an obsession, but you did it because of your fascination with the character, he wasn’t some angsty teenager, but a person with real emotions. Well, aside from the fact that he isn’t real, but that won’t stop you.
Much to your pleasure, the next two classes fly by, mostly consisting of you sitting there and day-dreaming about how you’ll pull for the next two characters that are arriving in the next patch, and how you need to catch up on their lore.
As you’re walking towards the campus’ entrance your phone vibrates, “door is open. i expect cookies. we are grinding on genshin tonight. i’ll even let you use my c6 wanderer.”
You snort at his message, he knows your infatuation with the medium-sized men from Genshin, and he spent three weeks of his paycheck just to see your reaction to his Wanderer build — he had triple crowned him, along with maximum refinement on his weapon, and to top it off, the sixth constellation. Although you of course scolded him, you were both college students and he lived in an apartment, no way he could afford something like that easily.
Unfortunately tonight you wouldn’t be able to bring him any desserts — you went to the closest bakery, nothing. So you tried to go to a nearby shop, nada. Then you attempted to go to a corporate store, zip. You stood outside of the store taking a moment to recollect before retrieving your phone from your pocket and sending Yuli a message, “they don’t have anything, but i am still coming over.” You put your phone back and look at your surroundings, you recognize what street you are on and start making your way towards his apartment.
“Sorry, hon. Construction, you’re gonna need to find another way,” the construction worker says to you with his palm facing towards you, beckoning you to stop. “Another way? This is almost in-front of the apartment entrances, sir,” you say to him, but he already had his back facing you and began calling out to his other colleagues. Fine, you say to yourself and begin to make rounds around the buildings.
The wind begins to blow against your face, a touch of freeze along with it. You didn’t wear a considerable amount of layers today since you didn’t think that your walk to Yuli’s apartment would take so long, you and him don’t live a considerable distance from each other. You make do and put your hands in your pockets while trekking around the area.
Finally a spark of hope ignites within you as you find an alleyway, every part of your brain is screaming NO, but you’re freezing and you’d rather take the chance of maybe getting robbed versus freezing to death.
You start walking down the alleyway and take notice of the broken metal fence on one side while a bricked building is on the other. Yeah, definitely safe and ideal, sarcasm ringing in your thoughts.
“I don’t care about how much damn money you make…”
A sudden voice startled you as you reached a corner to the L-shaped alleyway — a voice filled with animosity and a threatening aura laced into it.
“You decided traversing worlds without a care wouldn’t cause a stir?” the same feminine voice scolded its counterpart, and you could hear the shuffling of clothes — presumably the person was holding onto whoever they were talking to by the collar.
There is no way out of this, you should’ve listened to your gut-feeling, but now you’re stuck in some insane rendezvous about “traversing worlds.” You keep your back to the out-facing corner, if you were to walk to the entrance of the alleyway, they would undoubtedly hear you.
“Someone is here,” an unfamiliar voice whispers, probably the one that was being held down. Your body goes stiff, and you look straight ahead, fleeting hope that maybe your silence would cause them to forget that idea.
“Come out,” the feminine voice calls out.
When you didn’t move, she called you again with more power, “I said come out.”
There is no way out of this. You move away from the outwards corner and face the two figures, they were both shadowed out of your vision from the dumpster they were standing in-front of.
The feminine figure began to speak while looking at you, “She’s just a human—”
Pop.
A loud gunshot ricocheted against the walls and you felt a sensation in your abdomen. Your eyes blew wide open, Was I just shot? You couldn’t feel any pain, the adrenaline in your veins trying to cope with the amount of stress on your body. All you heard was a sharp gasp from the woman, and the sounds of the offender fleeing.
“No, no, no!” The feminine voice seemed to approach you, but it was difficult to make out what was happening as your body fell to the ground with a loud thump.
“Hey! You’re going to be fine, can you see me?” she calls out to you, but your eyes are barely open. This is truly the wrong place at the wrong time, you think to yourself, and let out a slight laugh that is immediately followed by a choke.
“Why are you laughing? Gods,” her voice becomes more stressed as she hovers over your figure.
You try to look up at her, but she covers your eyes with her hand. She let out a breath from her nose before silently whispering to herself, “Damn it.”
In your lidded eyes, you see a white light fill your vision. Is this how I am meant to die? No, before I can see the end of Genshin. Before I can use Yuli's account? No “I don’t want to die,” you choke out, the blood in your throat hitching your words. In turn, the white light dissipates, and you hear a sigh from the female. A light fills your vision again, but this time it's golden, the best way to describe it is as though you are witnessing a bright gold as if your eyes were open — the golden sensation fizzles away, and you feel your consciousness slip.
–
A slight warm breeze brushes on your face. The sounds of frog croaks and chirping birds infiltrates your ears, and there was a shimmering ambiance of sound, as though millions of little fireflies were dancing around your ears. I’m dead, aren’t I? Your face contorts into a scowl, you should’ve listened to your intuition, but you’re always so damn stubborn — you were your own harshest critic. When you first started Genshin, you criticized yourself for not building Kaeya correctly. Yuli laughed and told you that you just started, that didn’t stop you from scowling at the screen, determined to build Kaeya correctly. In turn, this caused Yuli to laugh at your distorted face. Yuli… your thoughts begin to crystallize as you recount what happened only a few moments ago — at least you think it was a few moments ago.
A sudden shadow covered your closed eyelids, and you heard a raspy voice call out to you, “Hey, get up.”
Your eyes slightly opened in order to take in the sight, lush green grass surrounded your lying figure, and streams of sunlight bled through the overhanging massive trees. It sort of reminded you of the village of Vanarana and that ten-years long world quest.
“I’m talking to you,” the voice beckons your attention sternly, causing you to look hazily into violet eyes, the metal shakujo connected to one of the strings of the person’s large hat brushes against your leg, the cold metal causing you to shiver.
“How rude, you can’t even look at a person when they’re speaking to you,” he grimaces before backing away from your face and standing straight with his arms crossed.
Except… wait… you recognize this person.
“Am I dreaming?” you ask with a husky voice.
“I sure hope not, how unfortunate it would be if I were subject to your own samsara,” he chuckles to himself, his face moves into a wicked expression.
You slowly blinked, but his figure wasn't disappearing, so you opted for closing your eyes. You must be dead if you’re dreaming about meeting the Wanderer.
You feel a sudden grab on your shoulder, you open your eyes and were once again met with those violet eyes. “Are you stupid or just deaf,” his eyebrows knit together while the hold on your shoulder increased in strength and pain began to erupt, “I said get up.”
You respond loudly, trying to get out of his painful grasp, “I’m up, I’m up!”
“Good,” he let your body fall flat to the ground, earning a groan from you.
“Are you real?” you lift your torso slightly to get a better look at him.
“Excuse me?”
“I asked if—”
He swiftly interrupts, “I heard you, what an idiotic question. What do you think?”
God, he was rude — either your brain was making a convincing Wanderer or you were evicted to hell, or heaven? His eyes piercing your soul like you offended him in some capacity… by existing?
“Now move, I won’t ask again,” he says, well, more like he threatens.
You gradually lift yourself, until you feel a sharp pain in your abdomen. What? A sharp gasp elicited from your lips as you crash back down, the Wanderer only stared at you with a confused expression.
“Hey, what is wrong with you?” he hovers over you with his arms still crossed, his face contorted with confusion and slight urgency.
“It hurts,” is all you let out before you close your eyes with a sigh.
You feel a hand lightly pressing on your stomach, “I told you to move, didn't I? Humans are so fragile,” he says quietly with an annoyed sigh. You weren’t able to respond to his quips, you feel your consciousness drifting away.
“Lesser Lord Kusanali would surely think I did this.” He clicks his tongue, and the last thing you feel is arms on your back and legs.
–
“No, not this one…”
“Not that one either…”
“Ah-hah! Wait, no…”
You’re stirred up from a quiet voice. You realize that you’re once again laying down, but this time it was on something comfortable, a bed. A soft blanket encompasses you, bidding you to fall asleep again, but internally you felt an emotional turmoil.
You opened your eyes to a yellow light streaming on your face. “Agh,” you covered your eyes with your elbow in return to the sudden intruder. You turn your face away from the window and are met with a young girl with her back facing you. She had exuberant green hair, two yellow-themed scarves going down her back, and a dendro vision attached to her hip.
“This should be enough.”
“Hello?”
“Wah!” you heard the sound of glass break as the girl turned around.
Your eyes slightly widened in surprise, Isn’t that Collei?
“You’re awake! Are you okay?” she rushed over to you and immediately put her hand on your abdomen, which in turn caused you to let out a sharp gasp.
“I’m sorry!” she lifted her hand as fast as she put it down.
“Where am I?” you craned your head to look at your surroundings. It looked like a lab, but for botany? Large leaves decorated the area, and you noticed a brown board with butterflies and fungus attached to it.
“Oh, sorry. This is Master Tighnari’s home,” she avoided eye contact for a moment before looking into your eyes again with a sudden alertness, “But don’t worry! You were only brought here because you needed treatment. Master Tighnari is the Forest Watcher supervisor.”
You could only stare at her, are you sure that you aren’t going insane? Why are you seeing characters from Genshin Impact, and if this is a dream, then why could you feel the pain from the Wanderer's grab before?
“Um…” she shifted uncomfortably from your staring eyes.
“Oh, sorry. Master Tighnari you said? Where is he?”
“Oh!” her eyes lit up, “He will return in just a moment, he asked me to finish creating a concoction for you… before I dropped it.” She looked behind herself at the broken glass and herbs nestled on the wooden floor, “I will get back to that right now, just don’t move, okay?” You nod in response.
While Collei was recreating her prior failed aid, you started thinking intently about your situation. The last thing you remember was being shot, and then a woman saved you? You weren’t sure if being transported to your favorite game was a blessing or a curse — transverse… that’s right! Before you were transported, there was a discussion between those two about moving across worlds, is that why you’re—?
“It’s finished!” the young Forest Ranger interrupted your thoughts. She requested that you attempted to sit up, albeit slowly. You tried to abstain any groans of pain to not worry her as she looked stressed enough.
She brought the cup to your face, you felt a warm moist sensation accumulating at your chin, there was a liquid inside, there was a green tea-like smell to it. You took the cup from her hand and began to drink from it, the warm sensation seemed to percolate through your body as you felt your entire body relax.
A sudden ruffle of leaves at the entrance left you shocked. There stood a male, fox-like individual, with green and brown eyes, and distinct tall ears.
“It seems the patient has awoken,” he looked at you with a slight smile, his forest-like eyes were mesmerizing. “I take it that you’re most likely confused,” he said as crouched next to the bed you were laying on. “Please do not be alarmed. Someone from Vanarana — a mountain ascetic, I believe — brought you here.”
A mountain ascetic… that’s exactly how the Wanderer was described in clothing. Doesn’t that mean he brought you here?
Although you were interested in this sudden revelation, you couldn’t help but stare at Tighnari while all of these thoughts passed through your mind — specifically his tall pointy ears.
“Don’t sit there with your mouth agape,” he sighed, he looked almost defeated.
“Sorry, I am still… confused. Are those ears real?” Why did you ask that? If this isn’t a dream then of course they’re real, you know about Tighnari’s vulpine features.
You saw Collei look at Tighnari with a slight smile tugging at her lips as Tighnari let out a sigh, “Yes, they’re real, and I would prefer it if you'd stop gawking.”
“Oh, right, sorry,” you say meekly, twiddling with your hands under the covers from the embarrassment and anxiety from the situation.
He quickly changes the subject, “Do you mind telling me where you’re from?”
“Where am I from?” That was a difficult question, how could you tell them that you’re not from this world, but you knew who they were, but you also don’t know how you got here — your mind was running at a hundred miles per minute.
“Well, I can tell you’re not from Sumeru based on your clothing,” he pointed to the now ripped fabric of a shirt that was hanging on the frame of the bed. “Are you possibly from Fontaine?” he kept a hand on his chin as his eyes switched from the clothing to your face.
While Tighnari was trying to figure out your origins, you felt a blush creep on your face as you looked down to see you were wearing a sweatshirt, and not any sweatshirt, Tighnari’s signature hoodie.
“Are you okay? Your face has gone red,” you watched as the forest-eyed Forest Ranger looks intently at you, much to your dismay.
The man must have misunderstood your sudden flustered behavior for confusion, “Ah, don’t worry. That’s my sweatshirt, it’s alright if you keep it, I have more.” You look into his hazel eyes again and just nod slowly. Collei just give you a smile.
This is too much at once.
Although you appreciate the kind gestures and aid from the Forest Rangers, you still had difficulty wrapping your head around this... isekai situation.
A part of you thought you would have woken up by now if this were a dream, and the only thing that made sense was the scarring from the gunshot wound — yet Tighnari said it was an internal infection by poisonous mushroom foliage, and then proceeded to give you a lecture on why you shouldn’t eat every mushroom you see like some simpleton. Even so, that didn’t make much sense to you as you don’t recall ever eating anything from that forest, so what was happening?
You were pulled out of your reverie from the green haired Forest Ranger, “Although I don't think you should be leaving so soon, I understand your circumstances.” The mattress dipped down slightly as she sat next to you on the bed. You just finished putting on your shoes before looking at her and nodding with a faint smile, “Thank you for all of your help, and tell Master Tighnari that I thank him as well.”
You told her that you had an important meeting, which wasn't a lie in itself, but it probably wasn't worth the risk of stressing your body. Oh well, too late now.
In reality, you wanted to find the Wanderer again. He saved you, which was uncharacteristically in-character for him. Although he wasn't the Balladeer anymore, it was slightly amusing how he basically called you a frail human and then saved you.
You waved goodbye to Collei as you walked from Tighnari's home. The fresh air fills your lungs, the feeling wasn't like your town's air — it felt almost pure, untouched by mankind. Every sound that encompasses you feels surreal, the chirping birds, the dirt as you walked, and the leaves ruffling in the light breeze.
Although you want to enjoy Gandharva Ville a bit more, you have more pressing matters. The Wanderer never stayed in one spot, as his name says, he's the Wanderer, and Sumeru is a vast nation. How would you ever be able to find him? Was this a mistake?
Wait… Tighnari said before that the person who brought you here was from Vanarana, so that must mean he’s staying around there, right? Then there’s no time to waste, you finally made up your mind and started trekking towards Sumeru City as the first waypoint.
It was quite easy to navigate as you knew a good amount of Sumeru because of how much time you spent either farming domains or collecting Rukkhashava Mushrooms. Also, who didn't want to spend time in Sumeru? The beauty was astounding.
–
You were nearing the city, you could feel it. Almost there, you attempt to motivate yourself. It took a lot longer than what you anticipated, but that was because you assumed that it would be similar to Genshin's compact size.
You reach a river in the Chivat Ravine, you feel your exhaustion taking over from all of the climbing, sliding, and running — from the floating fungi — you had done. You lean on one of the trees piercing from the rocks and let out a soft breath, filling your lungs with the newfound Sumeru air.
However, something caught your eye. You notice a certain lotus-like hat with colorful miniature spots all over it on the other side of the river — That's the Wanderer's hat!
You hide behind the tree you were leaning on and slowly peak from the side of it. There you could see a figure sitting down on the ground, leaning against a tree. His short black hair finally getting a breather after being trapped under that hat for so long. The trees around him provided enough shade, practically rendering his exquisite hat useless. You incline your head a bit more from the tree and see his flawless face, his violet eyes cloudless, his face was in such a relaxed manner that he looked as fragile as glass, and he had a tranquil smile that adorned his face. However, what captures your attention isn't how ethereal he looks, but the small doll he held in his hand.
His hands gently caressing the doll — it looks like the Kabukimono doll from his trailer, and then you remember, that is that doll. You recall reading in his character profile that he recreated the doll to be exactly how it was from the one that was given to him in Inazuma.
Witnessing this moment of serenity brings you happiness. Even through everything, he's still able to find peace within something like a doll even though this respite didn't include you.
Crack.
The Wanderer's head snaps in your direction following the tree branch that you stepped on. Immediately you feel a sharp gust of wind next to your head. You duck down and put your hands over your still intact head as you hear one of the poor trees have their branch sliced right off.
Your hair starts flailing out in every direction, and you feel wind pressing against your body. Soon the sudden vigorous wind came to cease and you look up, there stood a furious Wanderer. His face contorted into a mix of rage and sadness, he grits his teeth, and his eyebrows stitched into a downwards curve, and if his eyes could speak, they'd probably recite every curse known to man. You try to mitigate the situation,
“I’m so sorry.”
He pulls his hat down over his eyes,
“Pray tell, do you like to watch people like some stalker?”
“No, but you looked some serene and I…”
He lets out a low chuckle, malice clearly laced within it,
“You wanted to bask in my presence?”
You couldn’t refute because yeah, that's kind of what you were doing, admiring him from afar, just like what you would do in-game.
“I'm sorry…”
He turns away and clicks his tongue, arms crossing over his chest as if to signal he has no intentions of speaking to you. Your heart throbs at the scene, you couldn't do this to him, and you didn't like the idea of him hating you. You had to remember that these were now real people.
He begins to walk away before you run up and grab his scarf, to which he quickly retaliates and grabs your wrist.
“What do you want?” he snakes out.
“I wanted to thank you for saving me, let me repay you, please.”
He lets out a mischievous chuckle,
“What could a puny hu— girl do for me?”
He sort of had you there, what could you do?
“I know how to make tea, especially really bitter black tea!” you let out.
He lets go of your wrist that was now bruised and raises his eyebrow in suspicion,
“Why specifically bitter?”
Oh shit…
“It's one of my specialties, I know how to make the ‘real world earthy’ taste pop.” What in the world did you just say?
He stood there dumbfounded, mouth slightly agape, you completely bewildered the man. He pulls his hat down again and quickly composes himself, but remains silent for a few moments before speaking,
“If you can bring me a good ‘real world tea’ tomorrow, I might consider allowing you to speak to me.”
Your heart is close to exploding. First he saves you, next he almost kills you, and then he wants to see you again? Well, sort of… wait, where were you supposed to meet him?
He only walked a few feet before you attempted to call him, but to no avail, he was ignoring you. Now it was your turn to be bemused. I guess we’ll meet here then.