The courtyard was peaceful.
Too peaceful, considering Takumi had spent the entire day reverse-engineering a mutated viral genome and generating a cure that would rewrite the fate of an entire species of super-children.
The steam from the tea pot curled upward like dancing threads of silk. Zhongli sat as if carved from divine jade, Cloud Retainer and Madame Ping flanking him like venerable pillars of immortality. Xiao stood near the veranda—clearly forced here by Zhongli—arms folded, face expressionless, tension radiating in waves.
For a moment, Takumi simply breathed.
This world… finally felt alive.
Then he remembered Xiao's karmic nightmare.
Right. That.
1. The Weight Xiao Carried
"You can fix it?" Zhongli asked again, unable to hide the aching hope behind his usually calm voice.
It was the first time Takumi had seen Morax—the Archon of Contracts—look like someone desperately waiting for a yes.
Xiao stiffened, golden eyes narrowing.
"I did not ask—"
"I'm offering," Takumi cut in softly. "Not forcing."
Xiao fell silent.
Zhongli explained, voice low:
"Karmic debt is something not even I could completely remove… The sins of defeated gods cling to Xiao. Millennia of hatred, grief, rage. Their lingering wills have intertwined with his own."
Cloud Retainer added dryly, "He also refuses to take proper breaks and insists on brooding for dramatic effect."
"Cloud Retainer—!" Xiao snapped, flustered.
Takumi raised a hand.
"It's okay. I understand the structure now."
He tapped his temple.
"Herrscher of Reason. Creation through cognition. Perception rewritten into structure. Thought converted into reality."
The immortals leaned closer.
"What Xiao carries," Takumi said calmly, "isn't a curse. It's a… cluster of memory-fragments. Will echoes. Trauma loops. Think of it like corrupted consciousness files stored inside his spirit."
The immortals blinked.
Even Zhongli paused.
"...That is unexpectedly accurate."
Xiao looked shaken.
Takumi shrugged.
"Basically? It's like having a hundred browser tabs screaming propaganda at you 24/7."
Cloud Retainer wheezed. Madame Ping covered her mouth.
Even Zhongli coughed into his hand.
But Takumi's expression turned serious.
"I can remove them. But only if Xiao wants me to."
Xiao opened his mouth—
—and shut it again.
For the first time, true hesitation crossed his face.
A Yaksha who had endured millennia of agony suddenly faced the possibility of silence.
A life without the screaming.
Without the darkness.
Without the debt.
He trembled.
"I… want it gone," he whispered.
"Even if it costs something."
Takumi smiled faintly.
"No cost. This isn't a transaction. It's a gift."
Xiao swallowed hard.
2. Enter: Takumi's Mind Palace (Herrscher Mode)
Takumi stepped closer.
A blue sigil lit beneath his feet — geometric, perfect, cold like a blueprint of reality.
Herrscher of Reason — Cognitive Domain Expansion.
The courtyard dissolved.
Reality folded into a hyper-vector mindscape, the world turning into luminous grids and swirling data streams.
Zhongli, Cloud Retainer, and Madame Ping watched in awe as Takumi's will sculpted an entire space out of nothing:
A floating cathedral of logic and memory.
Crystal pillars of data.
A massive sea of violet fog — Xiao's karmic sea — swirling violently in the center.
Xiao stood at its edge, horrified.
"This… all of this… is inside me?"
Takumi nodded.
"Yep. It's a mess. Your mental OS needs therapy, a firewall, and a proper trash-cleaner."
"…What is an OS?"
"Never mind."
Takumi descended toward the swirling karmic sea. Its waves roared like a thousand screaming gods, faces emerging from the fog — twisted, furious, biting.
Xiao flinched backward.
Zhongli clenched his fist, watching from the stable platform Takumi built for him.
"They are the remnants of gods I killed," Xiao whispered. "Their hatred is endless…"
Takumi's eyes glowed bright cerulean.
"Then let's end them properly."
He reached out.
Touching the sea.
3. Reality Distortion — Purification Sequence
The moment Takumi's hand touched the karmic sea, the demons surged at him—screaming, trying to burrow into his consciousness.
For a normal being, touching them meant instant madness.
Takumi?
He yawned.
"Noisy."
Herrscher cognition bloomed outward.
The fog solidified into floating code.
Anger → corrupted packet.
Regret → looping fragment.
Hatred → unstable memory shard.
Despair → recursive mind noise.
Takumi's Authority of Reason reorganized everything like an engineer reorganizing a chaotic file system:
"Delete."
"Delete."
"Reformat."
"Archive for study."
"No, that one's useless."
The karmic sea hissed, shrinking violently, compressed into geometric cubes of inert data.
Xiao stumbled, clutching his chest.
The first silence in millennia washed through him.
A fragile, unfamiliar peace.
"T-Takumi… what are you doing…?"
"Cleaning your soul," Takumi said as if it were household chores.
"You have malware in your brain."
Zhongli coughed again.
The karmic sea shrank further.
The last fragments dissolved.
Takumi sealed them in a crystalline construct of pure cognitive force — an elegant prism.
"Done."
The world snapped back into reality.
4. Xiao's Awakening
Xiao stared at his hands.
The trembling was gone.
The buzzing was gone.
Silence. Clear. Weightless.
He inhaled — truly breathed — for the first time in centuries.
"I… cannot hear them anymore…"
Tears pooled in his eyes.
Not dramatic tears — quiet, stunned ones.
Cloud Retainer sniffed softly.
Madame Ping dabbed her eyes.
Zhongli lowered his head, voice shaking:
"Xiao… at last… you are free from your torment."
The Yaksha looked at Takumi — not as a mortal, not as a god, but something in between.
"…Thank you."
Takumi waved nonchalantly.
"It's fine. You'll need some mental recalibration though. Imagine living in a house with 200 blaring speakers and waking up one day with total peace. It's gonna feel… weird."
Xiao nodded.
"Even feeling… normal is strange."
"For now," Takumi said, "rest. And eat. A lot. Your metabolism is about to spike."
Xiao's ears twitched.
"…Eat?"
Zhongli chuckled.
"It seems you will be receiving several days of hospitality."
5. Slice-of-Life Chaos: Group Chat Reaction
Takumi snapped a photo of Xiao, now peacefully sipping tea.
Then he posted it.
Takumi:
[Xiao's karmic debt? Gone.]
Fujiwara Chika:
[YOU WHAT?!?!?]
[YOU JUST DELETED A WHOLE DIVINE CURSE LIKE IT WAS A SPAM EMAIL?!]
Sagiri:
[Takumi-oniichan is terrifying… but also cool!!]
Akeno:
[Ara~ Ara~ That's quite a divine purification if I must say.]
Bronya:
[Affirmation: Takumi possesses admin privileges to reality. Recommend caution.]
Yuki (from her world):
[Wait… can you fix other curses too?]
Takumi:
[Probably.]
[Depends on the file format of the curse.]
Chika:
[WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'FILE FORMAT'??!!!]
Zhongli (quietly):
[He speaks truth.]
[The karmic curses were… indeed like corrupted data.]
The chat went silent for 10 seconds.
Then exploded again.
6. Empire-Builder Mode: Takumi's Next Step
With Xiao's problem solved, Takumi felt the Herrscher domain humming in satisfaction. It wanted more. Wanted to build. Fix. Expand. Improve. The world felt pliable to him.
In the silence of the courtyard, he thought:
If I can cure karmic curses…
If I can cure viral mutations…
Then what about the higher-order distortions?
What about worlds dying in cycles?
What about Teyvat itself?
Zhongli sipped his tea, as though reading Takumi's silence.
"You're thinking too far ahead," Zhongli said softly. "One world at a time."
Takumi chuckled.
"Not wrong."
He glanced at the map Zhongli had given him earlier.
Mineral veins. Resource fields. Ancient ruins.
Entire continents left untouched.
Time dilation meant he had thousands of years available.
Space meant he had infinite room.
Herrscher cognition meant he could build a civilization that transcended dimensions.
A multiversal refuge.
A civilization of repaired souls and rescued worlds.
And it all started with this:
Helping a Yaksha breathe.
Helping three little girls live.
Helping an Empress rebuild hope.
Empire-building starts in the smallest acts.
7. Xiao's First Meal Without Pain
Later that evening, Xiao sat at Takumi's dinner table.
He ate in silence.
But the silence was warm.
No echoes.
No curses.
No ghosts.
Just humans, immortals, and the hum of a robot cooking pot.
Zhongli watched him with fatherly eyes.
Miori Shiba chatted with Kisara about government paperwork.
The Holy Empress quietly drank soup.
Cloud Retainer lectured Ganyu about posture.
Takumi leaned back.
He didn't need to say anything.
Xiao looked at him again—this time, with something like gratitude, something like awe.
"This… is peace," Xiao said softly.
Takumi nodded.
"Get used to it."
Xiao hesitated — then smiled.
A small, real smile.
8. Darkness on the Horizon
In Takumi's mindspace, something rippled.
A disturbance in the Imaginary Sea.
Something old.
Something vast.
Something watching.
Its presence wasn't hostile…
yet.
Takumi exhaled.
"Looks like the next arc is arriving," he muttered.
Miori blinked. "What arc?"
Takumi waved her off.
"Nothing. Just a… maintenance issue."
But Zhongli noticed the shift in Takumi's aura — the way reality trembled slightly around him.
"Tread carefully, Takumi," he warned softly. "Great power draws great attention."
Takumi smirked.
"Good. Let them come."