Act 3, Scene 13
29th of the 7th Cycle
Naganohara Yoimiya never considered herself a very ambitious person. Her life was already laid out in front of her from the moment she was born, after all. She learnt the craft of firework making from her father, and would take over the family business when he retires. She wasn't going anywhere.
Until one day, a Vision fell into a fireworks tube in front of her, and she learnt what it meant to have one. So she asked herself, what was her ambition, that was so great that the gods took notice?
Was it making the toys and fireworks she was known for? That couldn't be it, if something so trivial could catch the eye of the gods, everyone would have a Vision. Was it making people happy? She goes out of her way to ensure all her customers leave with a smile, she plays with the city's children, she takes care of the elders. Yoimiya wasn't blind, she knows that she creates smiles wherever she goes.
But that wasn't her ambition. All she wanted to do is perfect her craft, and bring honour to the Naganohara name. If she could make people happy doing it, then wasn't that a good thing?
So she would stare at her Vision, and ask herself, why? To answer this, she asked all the Vision holders she knew, what is your ambition?
To serve the Shogun. To perfect my bladework. To protect my family. To do this, to do that. Everyone knew what they wanted to do, they knew what they aspired for. Yoimiya still couldn't find her answer.
Then, the Vision Hunt Decree arrived. Yoimiya was an avid believer in her god. Other than helping create fireworks and other handy uses, her Vision meant nothing to her, so she thought she was perfectly fine with surrendering it.
But for the first time in her life, she felt that knot in her gut. For the first time in her life, Yoimiya didn't just go with the flow. So she hid her Vision, and helped others hide theirs as well. She decided that if she didn't know what her ambition was, then she would make finding her ambition, her ambition.
So now here she was, the last of the Naganohara, serving in the Shogun's army, storming the walls of the enemy.
She slid under the feet of a man, and slash upwards with her sword. As guts pooled on the stone behind her, she dodged a spear and thrusted her blade into another man's face. A brief window of reprieve, and she could see more Shogunate ashigaru climbing up onto the walls using siege ladders and grappling hooks.
Her Vision shone, flashing red as she saw one of her squadmates fall to the ground. Pyro in her step, she dashed forwards, tackling the Watatsumi ashigaru and impaling him with her blade. She pulled her squadmate to his feet.
"You saved my life, Yoriki."
"You can repay me by staying alive till this is over." She told him honestly.
He gave her a bloody grin, "I can do that!"
Suddenly, he grabbed her shoulder and forced her to duck. Overhead, great balls of flame arced, crashing into Fujitou Castle's inner walls. She nodded her thanks, and reentered the front lines.
Fujitou Castle was the largest castle on Yashiori Island. Built on a hill, it had a central keep, the tenshu, surrounded by two fortified courtyards, one lower than the other, the honmaru and ninomaru. Currently they were fighting the Sangonomiya in the ninomaru, the lower court.
Once the walls were secured, the Sangonomiya ashigaru were slowly pushed back to the walls of the honmaru as more and more Shogunate men swarmed into the courtyard. Yoimiya heard a thunderous crash, and realised that the ninomaru gates were breached. It was over for the Sangonomiya.
They retreated in an orderly manner back to the honmaru gatehouse. Arrows flew down to support their retreat. One arrow struck Yoimiya in the shoulder, and she suppressed a scream. It wasn't that deep, her armour was some of the best the Army had to offer.
"Shields! Get those shields in front!"
Assigned ashigaru ran up in front of her, carrying large planks of wood. They created a wall of flesh and wood, blocking arrows as they steadily moved forwards. The roar of arquebuses rang out from behind her as the arquebusiers returned fire. Thunderous explosions followed as the Kamuijima Cannons spat their explosive payload.
At several positions, the cast iron spheres managed to punch through the walls of the honmaru. This shouldn't be possible, but after a month of constant hammering, the reinforcement spells engraved into the castle walls were long gone.
Tall siege ladders were brought up from the ninomaru gatehouse. Iron hooks on their ends prevented the Sangonomiya men from pushing the ladders off the walls, and General Masahito led the charge, first on the ladders. Yoimiya and her squad followed, dodging rocks and arrows as best as she could with the limited space. She felt a projectile deflect off her helmet.
Resistance was even fiercer in the inner courtyard. The Sangonomiya fought tooth and nail for every inch of ground.
BOOM… BOOM…
The constant banging of the battering ram against the honmaru gates reminded her it was only a matter of time before reinforcements arrived. But first, they had to clear the way. More flaming boulders arced overhead, this time crashing into the central keep. Distracted, she was nearly impaled on a spear, but reacted in time to grab the spear shaft and set in ablaze with her Vision. The Sangonomiya ashigaru on the other end dropped it in a panic, allowing her to stab him in the armpit, her blade skewering his heart.
"General Kujou! General Kujou has fallen!"
What!? She swivelled her head in a panic, to see General Masahito lying lifeless on the grass, an arrow in his chest. Impossible, he was wearing Mikage Furnace steel, no arrow could pierce that. She ran over to him and knelt by his corpse, and grabbed the arrow. It was made of rock.
Vision. A Vision Holder did this. She turned her head up to the tenshu, looking for the culprit. A dog-eared man stared back at her, she was in his sights. A golden arrow was released from his bow, her vision shone, and a wall of Pyro incinerated the Geo arrow before it reached her.
"V-vision…! A Vision Holder killed General Kujou!"
"Retreat… we need to retreat!"
She cursed, morale was dropping. She looked around, the Shogunate ashigaru were now slowly being pushed back, her squadmates looked at her, looking for orders. The gate was splintering, but reinforcements would arrive too late.
Yoimiya will have to take things into her own hands. She stood up and screamed.
"Don't falter! Will you let the Kujou's death be in vain!?"
She raised her arm in the air, her Vision burned, a great standard of Pyro formed in her arm. Emblazoned in the raging flames, the Electro Mitsudomoe of the Raiden Shogun.
"Fight, fight for our dreaded God of Eternity! Will you let it be said that the Shogunate runs from battle!?"
She impaled the Pyro standard into the ground, flames billowed in non-existent wind. Pyro washed across the ground, originating from the standard. The grass burned, and the rebels burned with it, screaming in agony as the flames climbed up their legs and cooked them in their metal armour.
But for the Shogunate soldiers, they felt nothing more than rejuvenating warmth, energy rushed back into their limbs, adrenaline in their veins. They have never felt more alive than they have now.
"Forward! Push forward! Take this castle in the name of our dreaded God!"
A deafening cheer rose from the Shogunate soldiers. Life back in them, they stampeded over the ashes of the rebels and crashed into the next line of enemies behind, fighting with inhuman strength.
"The gatehouse will fall, reinforcements will come. Leave the Vision Holder to me!"
With that, she let go of the Pyro standard and grabbed a fallen bow from the ground. Pulling back the bowstring, an arrow of Pyro formed.
Snap!
The arrow shot forward, aimed for the head of the Geo Vision Holder. The arrow hit a wall of flickering Geo, and he responded with an arrow of his own. She rolled to the side, the Geo arrow tore into the earth where she was once standing, kicking up dirt. She knocked another arrow.
BOOM
The honmaru gates fell to the ground, and thousands of Shogunate ashigaru charged through the breach, General Sara leading them. Yoimiya watched in frustration as another of her arrows was stopped by the Geo shield. As the man knocked another arrow, an Electro projectile suddenly punched through the Geo shield and ripped through his neck. He fell out of sight.
Yoimiya turned around, and saw General Sara nod at her before returning to command her men. She breathed out before gripping her Pyro standard and lifting it from the ground. Before her, in stark contrast to the battle in the ninomaru, the rebels were panicking, desperately trying to fall back to the tenshu's gate.
The tenshu's gates closed with a resounding boom. Many rebels were abandoned, stuck outside banging against the reinforced doors. As the Shogunate ashigaru advanced, the rebels turned around and fell to their knees begging for mercy. The Shogunate gave none.
Still, they were now in a dilemma. They could either storm the tenshu walls now, which will result in much more deaths, or wait for another battering ram to be rolled up to the honmaru, which will waste a lot of time, giving the rebels time to prepare.
Yoimiya had a third solution, she hefted the Pyro standard.
"Move out of the way!"
Seeing her, General Sara gave the same order, and the soldiers parted, creating an avenue leading up to the gates. The Pyro flag coalesced into the shaft, creating a lance. Gripping the shaft, she ran down the avenue.
One step, two step, and-
FWOOSH
The Pyro lance shot forwards, leaving her hands, scorching heat in its wake. It crashed into the gates, and punched right through it. The soldier cheered.
General Sara gave the command, "Forwards! Storm the keep and clear out the rebels!"
The soldiers surged forwards in a human wave, eager to spill rebel blood.
Yoimiya fell to one knee, and gasped for breath. Sweat dripped down from her forehead. A shadow rose in front of her, she looked up. General Sara was standing in front of her.
"Good work. I'll see to it that you get an Imperial pardon for hiding your Vision during the Vision Hunt Decree. I'll also see to it that you receive an official permit from the Tenryou Commision, so that you can keep your Vision… on several conditions."
"Thank… thank you, General."
General Sara gave a thin smile, before lifting her up.
"Let's take this castle."
She then ran through the broken gates. Yoimiya unsheathed her sword, and followed.
Author's Note:
Act 3 is turning out to be the longest Act yet and well, I got lots off stuff to talk about. The Campaign Arc is coming to an end next chapter, so I just want to address some things now.
1) Yoimiya died in the initial draft of Scene 5. A "Void" Beast dropped onto the Naganohara House and killed Ryuunosuke, then it impaled Yoimiya on its lance-hand thing. Aether wasn't going to save Yoimiya initially, but I decided to change that because she has a lot of potential as a character.
2) Kazuha died in the initial draft of Scene 12. Kujou Sara personally beheaded him. But in the end he lived as well, but the reason for this is more meta. See, Kazuha got the whole 'wanderer' shtick going on, so I wonder if Mihoyo will show him in Mondstadt or Sumeru or Natlan, who knows right? If Kazuha ends up a recurring character that'd be really cool, so I did a similar thing here. Thus, Kazuha got both his and Tomo's Vision confiscated, but he still lives. Also, he is no longer a Kaedehara.
3) Yoimiya is at a fork in the road so to say, in Scene 13. She will either; 1) Join Aether and Mona, accompany them on their travels, or; 2) Join the Tenryou Commission, she will rebuild the Naganohara Clan and become the governor of one of the settlements on Yashiori Island. I haven't quite decided what I want to do with her. BUT, Aether and Mona will pick up someone from Inazuma regardless of whether Yoimiya leaves with them or stays. So its a one or the other kind of thing. What do you think?
4) Version 2.5 was released and man what a heavy lore bomb. We know have proof that Istaroth's presence existed in Inazuma as well! As for the information we got about the Cataclysm in Inazuma, I'll make sure to incorporate that into the Tenshukaku Arc. As for the fact that Makoto went to Khaenri'ah alone and Ei got there too late... ehh I'll have to revise my earlier scenes in Act α.
Thanks for reading! Thoughts would be appreciated.