A/N: ...lost a family member recently. Sorry for the lack of length.

Still writing Genshin, don't you worry. Alas, my current cowriter can only do Elden Ring T_T

That said, I won't be able to play the game for much longer; you see, the incoming 2.7. update later this month has finally proven too much for my old Ipad, and likewise my Iphone. Simply put, I haven't enough storage on either device, and not enough money to upgrade. I'll keep the applications until I can afford new devices, but it really hurts knowing I won't be able to play my favorite game soon.

*siiiiiigh*

I suppose I'll have to watch the cutscenes on Youtube or somesuch...

Still managed to get Ayaka tho, so ha! I can still be proud of that at least.

Alright, I've kept you waiting long enough, methinks. Lets get the gears moving!

As ever, I own no references, memes, or themes.

Get ready to grin.

What is a king to a god?

What is a god to a nonbeliever?

Still a god. Watch this. Do you believe now?

~?

Stand With Me

The front was breaking.

Kujou Sara's right eye twitched.

"Hold, blast you! For the Shogun! Hold the line!

That telltale twitch was followed shortly thereafter by her left eye. Her face soon followed suit, as did her body not long thereafter. Her very being quivered with rage, which didn't help her aim at all. Even so, she reigned in her emotions, calmly knocked another arrow to her bow and tracked her target. She did not shout. She did not shriek, did not reveal the most meager morsel of emotion, even as a burly bandit cut through past the defenders and stormed her way. Golden eyes tracked the swing of his arm, watched his weapon rise up in a devastating arc. A single swing of that ax would cleave her in two...assuming it reached her.

She clicked her tongue, drew the shaft back and let it fly, nailing him dead in the eye.

The madman had only just begun to pitch backward when she called a second arrow to her grasp. Pivoting, she turned, found another break in the defensive line, and fired into the dark mass below. Then another. Another now. Still another. Each shot came faster than the last, laying waste to anyone who dared approach. She was a proud Tengu warrior, ancient and eternal and she would most certainly not succumb to this raid. She would sooner taker her own life before...

.

..

...where had the clouds come from?

A hand touched her shoulder, calloused fingers squeezing gently.

Warm lips brushed the outer lop of her ear, sending a shiver shooting down her spine. "On your left."

Dodge! Fly! Flee! Sara's sixth sense shrilled these warning and her body obeyed; twisting without a second thought. Just as well. Not a moment later a mass of wind and vermillion lightning hurtled through the space she'd occupied to fall upon down on their attackers. Bodies hit the floor. Many more hurtled into the air, only to be rent apart by heavenly bolts of purest crimson.

And then HE was there, walking past her with a spring in his step, as if he'd been there all along.

She knew better of course. If he'd been among them before, the battle wouldn't have taken a turn for the worse.

She pursed her lips. "You're late, my lord."

"Sorry about that, Sara." a merry blue eye gleamed over his shoulder. "Kids wouldn't go down for a nap. This won't take a second."

His right hand rose to gleam gold, conjuring a sphere of darkest night. She saw the golden fox rise around him, jaws yawning wide. Oh. He hadn't spoke in jest. Dread dawned and she hastily averted her eyes-

Let there be light.

Sara thought it an apt description; because for an awful moment, that was all she could see. Blinking the spots away from her vision, she squinted down into what had once been a plain teaming with monsters, bandits, and worse. What was once a rotted and pitted field had since become a canyon in the wake of his Tailed Beast Bomb. And there in the distance, she thought she spied a crater, still crackling with inhuman light. Another landmark made from his might, another testament carved by his strength. Most of the enemy host had evaporated outright.

Most, but not all.

Even now her keen eyes spied a few lucky -or unlucky?- shellshocked souls rising from the dirt. A proper army would have retreated in the face of such strength. But these creatures -and those they had corrupted- knew neither fright nor fear.

"Hmm." Naruto thumbed his chin, considering the carnage. "I'm getting rusty. That should've killed all of them...

Sara swatted his shoulder. "Wasn't that a tad excessive? You didn't need to cut loose like that."

"Maybe." Naruto winked at her and waltzed down the steps. "Now the fun begins...

A cry went up from some of the shieldbearers below. "Its the Shogun!"

"He's here!" soemone hallooed back, "The Shogun has come!"

Another took up the call. "At last! We're saved!"

He ate it up of course, the lout.

"Stand fast!" His voice boomed out as he raised his arms to address, heartening them. "You fight for Inazuma! For your families! For your future! With me!" He raised his lance, sweeping it toward the oncoming dark tide in a wave of crimson light, carving a path forward into the teeming mass. "WITH ME NOW!"

"Inspiring, isn't he?" a soft voice cooed in her ear. "Almost makes me want to ravish him here and now."

Sara jolted a little as someone nudged her forward. Why was everyone sneaking upon her today!? "Lady Havria...?"

She had time enough to glimpse a subtle smile and pale hair, then she was past her, moving to stand beside her husband.

Much to her chagrin Sara spied the mother of Lady Ayaka in the mass of soldiers there as well -when had she gotten past her?- fan in hand, smiling fit to burst. There were others down there as well, new faces joining the fray or only just arriving.

Was this it, then? The final push? Had they closed up the other fronts at last?

If the sight of their Lord had been enough to rouse the soldiers, the presence of their Ladies alongside his own daughters, Ei and Makoto, sent the Isles into a raving frenzy. Naruto and Havria linked hands and held their intertwined fingers before them. Sara couldn't hear what was said by them; not over such a din, but whatever it was ended with a single, resounding word.

"CHARGE!"

The roar that followed could have deafened the gods themselves.

When their Shogun moved, his wives followed, and thus, the whole of Inazuma followed. Sara waded in after them.

Truth be told, there were times when she feared this man, the one she'd sworn herself to. The Lord Shogun of Inazuma -long may he reign!- fought like a demon against his enemies; he was a storm in motion, destruction incarnate, delivering destined death on a scale hereito unseen before. And here she was, a humble archer with naught but an Electro Vision, supporting him as best she could, and trying by all the gods above and below not to die.

Fighting with a god had a funny way of opening one's eyes.

Anyone else would've been terrified of such senseless slaughter; and she had been once upon a time. Now she knew better. She ducked a sword, backhanded a six-legged abomination, and swept the legs of another ruin of a soul that might have once been a bandit. Each second was a struggle for her. And yet...he was playing with them. Laughing as he tore the monsters and corrupted creatures apart.

And yet when her living lord turned to face her on the field of battle, his robes spattered in the blood of the fallen, he wore an almost chagrined smile.

"I know this might sound sudden, but is there any chance you'd be willing to babysit the girls this weekend?" He casually caught an ax as he spoke and used to eviscerate a particularly plucky soul who'd tried to stab him in the back.

The twitch came back with a vengeance. "Permission to speak freely, Lord Shogun?"

"We're in the middle of a battle! You don't have to ask!"

Sara glared at him.

"Fine, granted." he ducked a spear, snatched an arrow out the air, and flung it back at the archer who tried to do him in. "Speak your mind. This ain't gonna end anytime soon."

"Then I shall be blunt." Sara swayed away from a sword without looking, slapped a man aside with her wings, and brought a torrent of lightning down upon another. "You've sired entirely too many offspring. Honestly!" tutting, she caught a club, spun it around, and brained the man with it. "Show some moderation, my lord!"

"Bah!" he stove a man's face in with a rasengan. You love babysitting them."

Her pale face sparked red. Her next shot went wide, but the subsequent explosion still devastated an enemy squad. "I do not!"

"Really?" he thumbed his chin. "That's not what Itto told me. I mean, I know you're pregnant and all, but isn't it a little early for you to be this moody?"

Sara's next shot went wide.

Oh dear. He shouldn't have said that. "HE'S A DEAD MAN!"

Naruto held up a finger. "I believe the term is Oni."

"Still dead!"

Sara flung herself into the battle, determined to survive all the more, if only to tear strips out Itto's hide.

For you see, she understood. There were two sides of the lord she served.

No matter how she might protest in public, she quietly adored them all.

A father he may be, but he was also a warrior. Their warrior.

This was their Lord Shogun Eternal.

Long may he reign.

A/N: Aaaaand scene.

As ever, the Embers rule still persists. If folks don't like this? Poof! Gone!

Awaaaaay to the void it goes. Gone once and for all. Forever. Completely. That's no joke.

So by all means, speak up! Raise your voice! Make yourself heard! Your reviews matter! Really, they do! I'm literally working every day now, so I have less and less time to write. Daily updates might...slow down for a bit, but I know that would upset a lot of people. Its just hard with two jobs.

So In The Immortal Words of Atlas...

...Review, Would You Kindly? It keeps us all alive.

Without reviews, we wither and die. Sorry, but that's the truth.

No previews this time. I'm stressed out right and proper with this holiday weekend and my boss is being HORRID. T_T

...fine, fine, don't make that face. Just one, hopefully it'll lift your spirits the way it did mine. Kudos if you know where its from. I ain't being subtle.

(Preview)

"Nope. No man is good enough for my little girls. If he can at least beat me, I'll consider it."

Makoto made a face. "Father, we're not children anymore...

"Oh? This from the girl who still sleeps with a teddy bear?"

Heat crept up the back of her neck. "How did you...?!"

Ei hid a smile behind her hand.

"Not a word from you, little miss sweet tooth."

She scowled at him, but didn't protest.


"Don't worry." Naruto cracked his neck. "I'm not mad. In fact, I'd like to play a game. Lets play tag. I'M IT."

A flick of his fingers sent the goddess flying with a yelp.

"Bastaaaaaaaaard!"

R&R~!