#takamine the mistsplitter | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

therosefrontier · 2 years ago

Link

Whumptober Day 27

+++

No. 27 PUSHED TO THE LIMIT Muffled Screams | Stumbling | Magical Exhaustion

+++

Fandom: Genshin Impact

Characters: Asase Hibiki, Takamine the Mistsplitter (a.k.a. Konbumaru), Kitsune Saiguu, plus a little bit of Neko and Ako Domeki

Placement?: Five hundred years before canon present, the time of the Cataclysm as per lore

Word Count: 2697

//Note: refers to lore materials mostly from the Shimenawa's Reminiscence artifact set, the Storm Cage from the Emblem of Severed Fates artifact set, and the weapon lore for the Thundering Pulse, Mistsplitter, and the Hamayumi, with some direct quotes included here and there

+++

Hibiki was friends with an absolute fool.

“Idiot,” she grunted while dragging him another step up the mountain, which the shrine just had to be on the top of.

“Well, I won, didn’t I?”

“It’s bad enough that you gamble away all your money all the time. If you go and gamble away your life, I will end you personally.”

Konbumaru (or “Takamine the Mistsplitter,” as people called him now) paused for a moment before the words settled in. “Wait, isn’t that a little counterintuitive…?”

“Shut up!”

Idiot. Hibiki didn’t know why she tried to reason with him. Still, she helped him up the path, his left arm draped over her shoulder as she half-dragged, half-carried him back to the shrine while he stumbled over his own feet, so he could get some help. She let her anger be a suitable distraction with the unsettling feeling of his blood smearing itself onto her side. She knew he would be fine, though. He needed healing, but mostly, he was just exhausted, she knew. Although his Electro Vision still shone brightly at his hip, its energy had been more than depleted. He would need some time.

“Just think twice before you go running after monsters, okay? What if I didn’t show up, huh? You don’t want to fall somewhere and have no one around to pick you up.”

“Yeah, yeah, okay. I’ll keep that in mind.”

When they finally got to the shrine, Lady Saiguu laughed at them, as soon as she saw them.

“Saiguu!? How are you laughing!?”

“Oh, that?” The head shrine maiden buried her snickers then, her white kitsune ears twitching playfully. “It’s just that you’re so short. He’s twice your height, and here you are, carrying him like a little finch trying to drag a whole Yumemiru tree branch to make its nest.”

“He is not twice my height!”

“Okay, okay, one and a half.”

“Just…help him, please?” She was too tired for the shrine head’s weird jokes at the weirdest times. Years ago, when Hibiki was the greenest rookie of maybe any rookie walking into Narukami Shrine, she held Lady Saiguu in great awe and respect. She knew so much, and Hibiki knew so little. Her parents in the backwater fishing village she grew up in never even taught her how to read. She couldn’t talk right, she couldn’t act right, she couldn’t do much of anything. However, she learned. She studied as hard as she possibly could, to appease the curiosity burning within her, and so that when the day came when she would return to Serai Island, she could take command of its shrine and make it something great.

So, now that she had done her time and made herself into not so much of a fool anymore, she felt that she had the right to call Kitsune Saiguu weird, if she felt like it.

“No worries,” Saiguu assured with a giggle. “We’ll fix him right up.”

+++

“…I’m too good with a sword, you know? That’s why no one ever talks about my archery. Actually, now that I think about it, that’s such a waste of good archery. How about I teach it to you, then?”

Konbumaru came to her that day because he had broken the string on his bow, the “Thundering Pulse,” and he needed her help to fix it, again. Hibiki wasn’t expecting that day to end with her learning archery from him.

She wasn’t complaining, though. She was fascinated by the art, and she felt a rush at the very possibility of learning (although she wouldn’t tell him that, instead accepting the offer with a roll of the eyes and an ‘okay, I guess’). Traditionally speaking, shrine maidens weren’t fighters, but Saiguu fought (formidably, she might add), so why shouldn’t she?

Konbumaru guided her hand back, told her to keep focused on the target before her. “But not too focused!” he laughed. “That’s how you get stabbed from behind, or so I hear. The best archers, like me, can see every target at once, like you have eyes on the back of your head!”

“Yeah, yeah, we’ll get there. It’s my first day, alright?”

Hibiki hit the target, missing the center by a long shot, but she felt satisfied enough that she hit the target at all.

They trained again the next day, and then the week after that. They lingered sometimes afterwards, watching the stars in the sky.

“I wonder, you think the constellations we see belong to dead people? Because, I can’t, say, find mine up there, but the stars have to come from somewhere, right?” he asked.

“Hmph. Well, what if the stars are just stars? Never saw too much point in divination, anyways.”

“Oh really?” He quirked a smile. “That is a shame. And right after I got a ‘Great Fortune’ slip at the shrine today, too. I thought I might just go to the teahouse before midnight today to play some cards.”

“Heh, really? You’re really going to do that with me?”

“Hey, I won’t go broke this time! Promise.”

“Please, you’re already a Hatamoto with important responsibilities. Why are you still running around looking for trouble? And you’re already married too, to a sweet wife no less. Why do you spend your days wandering and gambling, huh?”

“No, no, I promise. I am not ‘wandering’ anymore. I’m protecting Inazuma, starting a family, and also, teaching you how to shoot a bow. I actually have no free time at all, really.”

She punched him in the shoulder for that, the gesture feeling like a touch of old times. They knew each other ever since they were young, before he went off and got mentored by the great tengu Reizenbou, and before he ended up in service to the Raiden Shogun herself. Their paths were simply very different, it would seem.

“Hmph, if you have no free time, why waste it watching stars, then?”

“Well…costs less money than gambling, right?”

+++

He gave her his bow, before he left.

Their world had turned to chaos, that day. Hibiki was not a person prone to fear. Especially she became the master of a weapon, she would often fight monsters afflicting the shrine and the villages on her own. When she returned at last to her hometown, she became a defender of that hometown. Nothing could faze her.

Today, her hands trembled. She shook underneath a blackened sky, screams of monsters and men howling in the distance. The horde was coming for them, and she didn’t know where it came from. The apocalypse was here, and she didn’t know why.

Konbumaru was going to fight the apocalypse. He had no reason to be confident, but the fool never did stop gambling.

“I bet on the mightiest bow in the world that I will return here alive,” he said with a smile, before handing over the Thundering Pulse. He insisted that swordsmanship was his strong suite, anyways. He would fight the Abyss with the sword that gave him his title.

She watched him go, and she focused only on protecting the shrine. She evacuated the citizens of the village into the shrine so they would be easier for herself and the warriors to protect. The best fighters were out there with the Shogun’s army, facing the bulk on the onslaught. However, they would do what they could to protect their own.

Serai lost over a quarter of its population before it was over. Most of them were the citizens they failed to evacuate. Apparently, the rest of Inazuma didn’t do much better.

Lady Saiguu died in the disaster. Reizenbou disappeared not long afterwards, out of grief and guilt for failing to protect Saiguu. And Konbumaru never came back.

They did the best they could, was what Hibiki told herself every day. They fought the best they could.

+++

Konbumaru came back nearly a year later.

She found him in the forest that was their promised meeting spot. It was that same forest where the Kitsune Saiguu would never again roam. The same forest where they roamed in their youth.

��Asase, our promise... No, say rather our great bet. I will not lose it, not for the world!” he had told with confidence. He always spoke with such confidence. It was one of the brightest things about him.

“Hibiki, I had that dream again,” he said with tired eyes and a weak smile, as if trying hard to make light of it, but desperate to talk about it, all the same. Hibiki knew what he was talking about. It was the dream in which he cut off his own head.

“You’re just stressed about adulthood, probably,” she spoke with a shrug, but if she honest, it disturbed her too. She didn’t really believe in fortunes or dreams like the other shrine maidens did, but still, the thought sent shivers up her spine. “You should relax more,” she said, a little more seriously this time. “Maybe take a break from training so much? Get your mind on things not decapitation-adjacent, got it?”

He laughed at the way she described it, the intended effect achieved. “Alright, got it.”

He stood before her with dull eyes, masked in dried blood and a wetness that Hibiki probably only imagined to be tears. His clothes were ragged and filthy, and underneath them, a dark venom shone in the moonlight. The venom snaked up his chest, his neck, his face. It stretched down his arms and morphed into long, sharp claws that were wreathed in Abyssal energy.

He stared at her with nothing. No life, barely any soul. He looked to be in pain, but perhaps, Hibiki only imagined it.

His Vision was strangled in that same dark energy. Its light constantly flickered in and out.

Hibiki drew her bow with shaky arms. Chiyo was corrupted, they said. She fought against the Raiden, one of her closest friends! Was this that, she wondered? The corruption? The Abyss?

She paused a moment in the darkness. This couldn’t be happening. This shouldn’t be happening. She would have done anything, anything to save him. She shouldn’t have to—

He ran for her. His seeming lethargy was overcome by a shock of crazed energy, with an unearthly howl. She darted backwards, and he stopped short. He dropped to his knees, venom spreading into the ground and killing the grass that he touched.

Hibiki had to do it.

With tears in her eyes, she drew the bow, the Thundering Pulse, back again. A single arrow flew from it, with sparks of lightning glowing from its tip. It hit him in the heart.

“Losing one’s memory is no different from losing one’s life,” Saiguu once told her. “It is like death amidst darkness eternal.”

Hibiki refused to forget. She never will. She would die first before she died in that way.

Radiance sparked in Konbumaru’s eyes again for but a fleeting moment before they went dark forever. He dropped lifelessly to the ground. His Vision, too, finally found peace and went dark.

At Hibiki’s hip, a new Electro Vision shone in its place.

+++

Hibiki vowed that, no matter what, she would preserve Serai.

The rage and grief from her loss never went away, but she found new people by her side in those years. Ako Domeki reminded her far too much of Konbumaru sometimes, with his recklessness, but she appreciated his liveliness, as well as his help around the shrine. When he was not around, she had Neko to talk to.

Neko would talk to the Tenryou officers who came by too, successfully freaking out the uninitiated sometimes. The talking cat would also sit on Hibiki’s head during their meetings, making those envoys from Narukami even more uncomfortable, which gave Hibiki oh so much pleasure. As the years passed and her hair turned gray, people would grow more inclined to call her the “weird cat lady from the shrine.” It was amusing, really.

Serai’s relationship with Narukami grew sour, in those years. The problems started with money, as far too many damn problems did. The Tenryou Commission asked for large amount of money in taxes from them, for reparations after the Cataclysm. However, Serai saw very few of those reparations. They had to restore their island on their own. They were told that Narukami needed it more.

Some people grew discontented with the taxes and the soldier’s presence. Others blamed the Shogunate itself for not doing its job back during the Cataclysm, for not protecting them enough.

Ako Domeki was a pirate, and he took the fight to the Shogunate as such. The islanders began to see him as a hero.

Hibiki didn’t care much one way or another over the talk of rebellion. She was tired of fighting, herself. However, everyone she ever cared about on Narukami was either dead or gone. There wasn’t much point trying to bridge the gap between them. She only fought to preserve what she had.

She did her best, as the shrine maiden. She taught the kids how to read and write. She taught archery to the youth eager to learn how to fight. “Aunt Hibiki,” people would call her. She had little patience for foolishness, but she took care of everyone, fools included.

She was friends with a fool, once.

Battle came to Serai, one day. She knew it was going to happen. She watched the ships gather, and she came to see her troublesome pirate companion off before he set off to face the Shogunate.

“Get off the ship!” he said, as full of cockiness as ever. “Women are a hindrance here!”

Hmph, he wanted to protect her. How cute.

He turned his back to her, sword in hand. The same way he once did it.

Hibiki watched him go, with fire in her eyes and electricity sparking about her belt.

This time, I will not let this person die.

She held an old warbow in hand, the Hamayumi. She had not picked up the Thundering Pulse in a long time, now. However, neither were necessary. She set the bow down and quietly walked away.

They didn’t stand a chance, she knew. Domeki and the revolutionaries were full of fire, but they would never be able to defeat the Shogunate, the army backed by the might of an archon. Maybe, she should simply accept that. Maybe, she was about to make a choice that wasn’t hers to make. However, Serai was her home. It was the only home she had left.

She climbed to the top of the mountain, where a great power was sealed. Long ago, she had learned “true magic” on Mount Yougou. Today, she would use it.

She lifted her handcrafted storm cage to the sky, futilely praying once again that the gambler would win his bets. She looked out onto the land below, on the mossy reefs and harbor where she and Konbumaru once had their rendezvous, back when they were still young.

She hoped to retrieve those memories once again. She would rather die than lose them.

She broke the seal. Thunder and lightning ripped forth through the sky in overwhelming force, the remnants of that dead god coming back with a vengeance. Hibiki thought she might suffocate from it, but she held her ground. She was going to control this monster, and she was going to end this battle with her own two hands.

In the waters around her, lightning rained from the sky. Ships were cracked in two. Masts were set aflame. Even from such a distance, she could hear the cries from the Shogunate’s army.

Soon, it was over.

Hibiki dropped to her knees. Her strength was taken from her like it was siphoned. She did it, but she couldn’t control it anymore. Her Vision flickered. This was too much energy to handle, even for it.

Well, looks like I’m the fool, this time.

She dropped to the ground. There was no one around to pick her back up again.

Take care of the shrine for me, Neko.

The light from her Vision faded away to nothing. The light from the flashes of lightning above her will remain for another five hundred years.

3 notes · View notes

kyogre-blue · 3 years ago

Note

I’m a little surprised to see Hibiki described this way? It seems to say she fell in love with Ako Domeki, but that isn’t the case at all. He called her Aunty and she was like a whole generation older than him.

Hibiki was in love with Takamine, the owner of Mistsplitter. She was originally from Seirai, but went to Narukami to study under the Kitsune Saiguu (per the Shimenawa set). She met and fell in love with Takamine, a samurai who trained in tengu archery and served the shogunate quelling some kind of corruption on Yashiori.

During the Cataclysm, he went down into the Abyss to fight and was trapped there. He would emerge until years later, when it’s implied she might have killed him...

He had trained her in archery and gave her the Thundering Pulse, which previously belonged to him. But while they were in love, Takamine actually married someone else for political reasons.

After the Cataclysm, Hibiki went home to Seirai and ended up participating in Ako’s rebellion. And, as mentioned, she unleashed the Thundering Manifestation when the shogun attacked the island. (Fun fact: Ako Domeki survived, becoming lost and possibly washing up at the Golden Apple Archipelago before escaping.)

iirc, Hibiki did say Ako reminded her of Takamine, but one of the weapons has her thinking about how she and Takamine could have already had a child during the rebellion, so I don’t think her feelings for Ako were romantic in nature.

I agree that in general the backstory stuff seems more interesting, but imo there are two reasons for this:

One, those stories involve wide-scale conflicts that simply are not allowed to happen in the modern day. Like, Inazuma had actual wars, but when you get the modern civil war, it gets swept under the rug and happens entirely off screen.

Two, those stories are complete, which everything in modern day is drip-fed to us. Genshin consistently raises questions but doesn’t provide payoff. EVERYTHING is on hold until some nebulous future point.

Between these two issues, if those cooler stories were being told instead, they would be watered down and stretched out to be just as bland and meandering as what we’re getting.

because somebody mentioned ako domeki before, I think it's important to note how all the main characters of the civil wars of Inazuma are all like... a hundred times more interesting and relatable than the playable cast of Inazuma.

I would love to have a playable Hibiki, for example. Since I spended a lot of days going to visit Neko for the easy protos from her quests, I ended up searching for Hibiki lore and OH BOY I was surprised with the story of a powerful priestess who fell in love and in an attempt of help her beloved, did such a grave mistake that could only be undone CENTURIES later. Also the themes expressed in the story quest about loss and loyalty

but right, she's dead so whatever. I will never see her and she's only a background mention for a place and one (1) quest. cute cat statue I guess

the same goes for the moun sisters, that are eight times more fascinating and charismatic and admirable than their successor, without the help of all the shit about lore water dragon that they pulled out instead of giving her screentime, true intelligence or a firm posture about what to do with her own people instead of submitting to the Shogunate when their problems are still there, as they are from generations before her. but she chooses to ignore it and do the barely minimum to not collapse as a society.

all I have to say is that genshin is really wacky with their playable characters and main story when it has tidbits of maybe good/captivating writing in the background, dying slowly for each time that an inazuman justifies Ei's deeds

Lmao, I feel you there. Genshin is the epitome of "wow, all the interesting stuff happened centuries ago!"

It probably also would've been more interesting to actually have been in Liyue during the various god v god wars, or Mond's Aristocracy Era. Lol. Though Mond has some modern plot threads that'll probably go somewhere, at least...

HYV likes writing lore more than actual stories and character arcs, what can I say. Not that I think that would change if we actually did play in a Teyvat a millennia in the past.

#playing genshin

9 notes · View notes