"Tsk, why are you crying? Is this Thunderbird that good to you? More worthy of your attachment than your own people?" Ember clicked his tongue, looking at Ruu's wailing.
Kids are just hard to understand!
"Wuwu~" Amidst his sobs, Ruu still managed to nod.
This surprised Ember, Childe, and Balladeer. What kind of abuse had this kid Ruu suffered that his feelings for his people couldn't compare to an arrogant Thunderbird?
"No way? That brutal?" Ember whispered a few words to Childe and Balladeer.
"Tsk! If I had seen it, I would definitely have purged this place!" Childe also shook his head and sighed, completely forgetting that he had once planned to flood Liyue.
Even if he remembered, it probably wouldn't matter much. After all, flooding Liyue accomplished nothing, and he even released Osial, who seemed to be Ember's friend.
Thinking back now, what had he done in Liyue? It seemed he hadn't done anything, just collected some debts.
"..." Balladeer looked up at Ember and Childe, who were discussing how to pack up the people of Tsurumi Island and the Thunderbird, and his throat felt constricted, unable to say anything.
Seeing Balladeer's hesitant look, Ember immediately realized. The Fatui weren't much better, were they?
After all, Collei and Garura were the best examples. So he gave a big shove, pushing Childe and Balladeer far away.
"I'm warning you two, don't think I'm being all chummy with you now. If I catch you doing anything messed up, I promise you'll be worse off than the people of Tsurumi Island!"
Ember pointed at the two of them with one hand and drew a thin line on the ground with the other, indicating that he and the Fatui were like fire and water, absolutely incompatible!
"Do you know why I'm not turning you into fertilizer right now?" Standing on the other side of the line, Ember asked Childe and Balladeer, who had already been clearly demarcated.
"Because we're obedient?" Childe said with a bitter face. He couldn't not be obedient; if he wasn't, he'd be underground, and he still wanted to live.
"That's part of the reason, but more importantly, I'm a person who believes in 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.'"
"You clean up the messes you leave behind, and you resolve the grievances you cause!"
"Remember, clean up your act properly. If you don't do a good job, and someone comes looking for revenge, I'll be the first to hand them a knife." Ember pointed at Balladeer and Childe, warning them.
"What if we don't clean up?" Balladeer asked tentatively, his tone showing a hint of caution for the first time.
"Then I will! But by then, I'll be the one seeking revenge!" Ember cracked his knuckles, making both Balladeer and Childe shrink their heads.
"Understand?!"
"Understood!" x2
Balladeer and Childe nodded quickly like soldiers, afraid of being misunderstood.
Then they saw Ember lean back in, and looking down, the thin line on the ground had long been erased by Ember.
"By the way, why is this kid still crying?" Ember scratched his head. He only had one method for crying children: let them cry until they're done!
But Ruu showed no signs of stopping. To wail for so long showed how deep his feelings for the Thunderbird were.
"..."
Ember's change was so sudden that Childe and Balladeer were a bit slow to react. They looked left and right but didn't answer him.
"Why are you looking at me like that? We're in a cooperative relationship now, and discussing things with partners is perfectly normal, isn't it?"
Seeing Childe and Balladeer's silence, Ember put an arm around each of their necks and pulled them closer.
However, just as Ember was about to discuss with the two how to get Ruu to stop, the faint sobbing in the distance disappeared.
"Done crying?" Ember released his arms when he saw Ruu walking over.
The crying was gone, replaced by heavy gasps.
"Mm, thank you. Actually, I already had the answer in my heart, but... but..."
"Stop!"
Seeing Ruu about to cry again, Ember pulled out a piece of bread he had taken from a Fatui camp and shoved it directly into Ruu's mouth.
"Mmph..., ha!" After pulling the bread out of his mouth, Ruu mechanically opened and closed his mouth in place.
This taste, it seemed like the "sweetness" from his memory, right? Ruu wasn't sure. Since he had woken up, he hadn't tasted anything.
After briefly savoring his distant memories, Ruu's expression became conflicted, but in the end, he returned the bread to Ember.
"You should keep this. I don't need to eat."
"You should always have some, just in case you get hungry later, right?"
Ember pushed the bread back again.
"No, thank you. Can you take me to where Kapatcir died? I want to finish singing the song for him."
Ruu was stunned for a moment, but in the end, he didn't take it. He just stared blankly into the distance, his young body giving off a sense of impending doom.
This completely stumped Ember; he had never seen a kid so eager to die.
"No way? Don't you have anything worth living for?" Ember quickly tried to comfort him.
"Besides not having sung the song completely for Kapatcir, I have nothing to cling to."
Ruu nodded affirmingly. Before the three astonished people could say anything, he murmured to himself as if recalling the past:
"I am the son of the shaman. The annual blood sacrifice in our tribe was all handled by my father."
"When I was very young, my father made me watch him perform the ritual."
"Drawing the knife, killing people, letting blood, my father always forced me to watch these things. He also wanted me to watch carefully; he wanted me to learn this..."
As if remembering the resentful and malicious eyes of the sacrificial victims, Ruu covered his face. He squatted on the ground, trembling all over.
"No, I don't want to see, I don't want to learn, I don't want to become like my father..."
Fear and avoidance filled Ruu's heart. The bloody experiences of his childhood were still poisoning Ruu even a thousand years later.
"You don't have to be like that now. You've met us. A new beginning is beckoning you."
"No..., I don't want a new beginning. I just want to end the past. The silver boat is waiting for me, and the golden land has made a place for me."
Ruu's eyes were hazy. Vaguely, he saw the silver boat from the legends of Tsurumi Island. In the legends, the silver boat would carry souls to the golden land, which was the ultimate destination of everything.
"Hey! Are you crazy?!" A nauseating dizzying sensation came over him. Everything in front of Ruu was like a mirage, just an illusion.
Ember put his arm on Ruu's shoulder, shaking his head so fast it was a blur.
"Ugh—" Under Ember's full-force shaking, Ruu finally came back to his senses. He rubbed his forehead and said with a sense of relief:
"The land I lived on has become like this, all my familiar people are dead, and even the friend who listened to my songs was buried under arrows. Three big brothers, I'm a little tired."
"Alright, alright, you're tough! It's been thousands of years, and there's no trace; people and birds certainly can't come back to life. But this land, perhaps it can regain its vitality."
Meeting Ruu's slightly brighter eyes, Ember pointed at Childe and Balladeer beside him.
"Show some initiative?"
Childe heard Ember's words and saw the only flicker of light on Ruu's ashen face. He cleared his throat, then scratched his head and said:
"That's right, that's right, it's just like that! We're an exploration team from Snezhnaya. This place of yours is so big, and no one lives here, it's a shame, so we came to develop it."
"Pretty much like that." Balladeer turned his face away. Although he didn't say much, he still nodded.
"Tha... thank you!" Ruu finished listening and nodded heavily at the three of them.
"Not in a hurry to die, are you?" Ember reached out his hand and asked Ruu.
"Not in a hurry for now." Ruu shook his head.
"That's good. Let's go! I'll take you to see the lingering resentment your friend left behind before leaving Tsurumi Island!"
Ember grabbed Ruu's hand and rushed without looking back towards the highest mountain on Tsurumi Island—Mt. Kanna.
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