I'd missed the opportunity to search for Kaeya earlier today, so finding him was first priority now that horticulture was over. Except, I had barely reached the door when Professor Baizhu called for me.

"Lumine, I nearly forgot an important message to relay to you," he said from his desk.

"Yes, professor?"

I hovered by the door, curious as to what the message might be. Though, he didn't say anything else and simply waved me over. Holding back a sigh, I walked back into the classroom and watched him warily. There have been too many odd events lately, and I wasn't sure if I could handle more confidential information.

Once I reached Professor Baizhu, it was just me, him, and Changsheng left in the room. His smile did nothing to ease my concerns.

"Albedo requests that you begin your greenhouse duties today," he said. "Being the busy alchemist he is, I graciously decided to lend a hand and deliver the news to you."

I had forgotten about that arrangement. At the time, exchanging windwheel asters for greenhouse maintenance didn't sound like a bad idea at all. I'd been interested in learning more about botany and learning from Professor Kreideprinz, but that was back when I had the luxury to do so. Though, I couldn't just break my promise.

"Sucrose should be waiting for you right about now. You're to head straight there and take instruction from her," Professor Baizhu said. "I must say, this is quite the opportunity for you. Sucrose is very knowledgeable, and the greenhouse contains an abundance of flora—valuable ingredients."

"Professor Kreidepinz did mention that you sneaked off with a few of them in the past."

"About that," he cleared his throat. "Since I have successfully delivered his message, I do believe a favor is in order. I'm sure it won't be too difficult to find fresh qingxin in the greenhouse. Just two is all I need."

"You want me to take them for you?"

"If it's no trouble."

I raised my brows. "Since it's a favor you did for Professor Kreideprinz, shouldn't you be asking him instead?"

"Fair point. In that case, how about you retrieve just the stigmas? That's the part I'm after."

"Don't flowers need their stigmas to reproduce? Someone would notice if they suddenly went missing."

"I don't know whether to be proud of your memory or frustrated with your refusal. It can't be helped, then. I'll find another way to acquire what I need." Professor Baizhu finally dropped his smile and sighed in defeat. "You may go now."

The failure of his plan was almost amusing enough for me to forget about Kaeya. Surely, I would be able to catch him before the day ended.

Now outside, I noticed a light snowfall had added another layer of white to the campus lawn. Fortunately, the pathways remained clear of any snow or ice—completely dry and safe to walk on. Was this possible because of a mechanism, Vision technology, or another kind of science? Professor Kreideprinz would probably know the answer to this, but it wasn't him who I was seeing at the greenhouse today.

Once I reached the windowed building, I peered through the door to see if anyone was inside. Like last time, the only way in was securely locked, so I knocked lightly to alert the one person I saw working inside.

The door wedged open, and a head of bright teal hair poked out. "Hi there, you must be Lumine. Please, come in."

As soon as both of my feet has stepped over the threshold, she swiftly shut the door and lightly patted her gloves together. Then her eyes turned to the floor as she continued to speak.

"I'm Sucrose, a researcher of alchemy. I heard you're interested in botany from Professor Kreideprinz. If we can work well together…I'd really like that."

"I'd like that, too," I said with a smile, though she didn't see it with her head down. "Did you drop something? I could help you find it."

"Hm? Oh, sorry!" Sucrose finally met my eyes with a blush coloring her cheeks. "I was a bit nervous meeting you for the first time, so I couldn't bring myself to face you fully quite yet. Talking can be hard—especially around new people."

"I'm hardly a scary person," I said, shaking my hands in front of me. "If anything, I should be intimidated by you. A few people have had a lot to say about your skill and dedication to alchemy."

I'd meant to boost her confidence, but my words only made her blush deepen. "Really? I've always been so focused on my work that I didn't realize it caught the attention of so many people. That's…enough about me. Let's get started on making rounds."

She pointed to where batches of plants were beginning to grow. I listened closely as Sucrose informed me about the qualities she and Professor Kreideprinz were attempting to develop for each species, and I noticed her voice grow bolder as she got lost in the world of plants.

"If you look closely, you'll notice that the flaming flowers are secluded. Unlike most of the plants here, they possess a strong elemental alignment and must be kept at equilibrium with the rest of the environment in order to prevent disaster."

Her fingers nimbly reached under the table and pulled out a drawer that I hadn't noticed before. Inside the drawer, she carefully picked up a small glass bottle containing a red liquid.

"This is a heatshield potion. It can be useful in combat to withstand high heat, but the effect is the same in botany. When you see the base leaves begin to brown at the stem, you have to…" Sucrose trailed off with the bottle in hand.

At first, I thought she was trying to recall the exact steps on what to do. Her expression had shifted from attentive to dazed, and it was when she remained dazed that I began to worry. Did Sucrose have a tendency to space out? That didn't seem like a good trait for an alchemist to have.

"Sucrose?" I stepped forward and waved a hand in front of her face. "Are you there?"

My intervention caused her to jump slightly. Her head swiveled from side to side as if she was regaining her bearings, and she pushed in her round glasses.

"Sorry about that. I suddenly remembered something that was strange to forget. Luckily, it has nothing to do with greenhouse responsibilities. Where was I? Right, administer one drop of the heatshield potion to the watering can. Once diluted, pour it directly into the soil. We do this to prevent the Pyro from spreading beyond the immediate area."

She demonstrated treating the soil before leading me to the mist flowers and retrieving a similar potion bottle—this time a light blue. Frostshield potion.

"Would you like to try?" she asked.

I accepted and made sure to let the liquid drip with a steady hand. Sucrose seemed pleased with the result, and then she moved on to explaining the care instructions for other plants. Overall, the tasks were simple but plentiful.

"That's about everything on the basics. This routine can be done once a day after classes are over. Do you have any questions?"

My eyes briefly went to the fluffy ears that blended in with her hair, but I dared not to ask about them. Instead, a different thought sparked into my head—one not related to greenhouse upkeep.

"Thanks for showing me everything. I can't promise I won't make any mistakes, but hopefully, I'll get used to the greenhouse by the end of the week. By the way…what's your specialty when it comes to alchemy?"

"My specialty?" Her honeyed eyes widened in surprise. "My research pertains to bio-alchemy."

My interest heightened greatly, but I kept a casual expression. "Bio-alchemy? So, you work with a lot of living beings?"

"Not exactly. I mainly experiment on parts taken from deceased living beings. I can never seem to obtain enough bone samples, but I recently got permission from Professor Minci to harvest the remains of—oh! Sorry, I tend to ramble when I get excited about my experiments. Why do you ask?"

Without a doubt, someone who's an expert in bio-alchemy would know a thing or two about applying their science to heal others. Though Sucrose was still a student and had less experience than Professor Kreideprinz, I could get ideas from her on how to treat someone like Thoma.

"Have you ever experimented with extreme toxins? How good are you at reversing the effects of—for example—corrosion?"

Her brows furrowed. "I've worked with toxins before, yes, but the goals of my research are not to the ends of reversal. For the most part, I aim to test out different methods of creation. Improving and enhancing already existing qualities is my focus."

"I see," I said and looked out the windowed wall to hide my disappointment. Another dead end.

"Could this be about the patient in the infirmary, by any chance?" Sucrose asked, her voice quiet again.

I nodded.

"The reason why many of the plants here are in their seeding stage is because we recently replanted. A few days ago, Professor Kreideprinz had me harvest a large portion to treat that patient. It seems there hasn't been any success so far. Corrosion is outside of my expertise. I'm sorry."

Her excitement over bio-alchemy had withered into a glum expression. She looked down at the floor again, and I felt bad for bringing up corrosion in the first place.

"Don't worry about it," I said with a forced smile. "It's out of a lot of people's hands now."

Sucrose surprised me by shaking her head and balling her fists with newfound determination.

"There's a side experiment that I've been working on. Actually, I have quite a few side experiments, but this one may be of use to your friend if I can get it to succeed. You see, one reason why I don't experiment with living beings is due to their tendency to expire before data collection is complete. To solve this dilemma, I experimented with lizard blood. Many of the lacertilia species are able to regenerate lost body parts, so my goal is to synthesize lizard DNA into a potion capable of increasing subject longevity."

While explaining the experiment, Sucrose swiped a notebook off a nearby table and began scribbling notes down.

"Unfortunately, pure lizard DNAisn't viable for other species. I've been developing a more compatible formula, but other interests have taken up my time."

The idea of injecting Thoma with lizard DNA was more than off-putting, but beggars couldn't be choosers. "Would it work on a person?"

"I would have to modify the parameters of the nucleotides for a human body, but it may be possible," she murmured before gasping. "This is all hypothetical for now. Please, don't tell Professor Kreideprinz I've been working on this experiment. He's warned me not to overwork myself. I can't help it sometimes."

"I don't want you to overwork yourself either, but I also can't say no to this. Even though we just met, I would appreciate any help you can offer. There's not much time left."

"I'll do by best," Sucrose said with more confidence. Her eyes brightened for a moment, but then they seemed to be focused elsewhere. Did she space out again? "There's a crowd gathering outside. Is there a big event planned for today? I've been too buried in my research to attend anything recently."

I turned around, and through the glass, saw a large crowd of students huddled together. They were eagerly pushing each other forward with equal expressions of curiosity and excitement. My first assumption was that the dining hall had a rare specialty on the menu, but that's not the direction they were headed. It was rare to see so many students willing to roam outside in the winter, so it had to be something big.

Naturally, I also wanted to check it out, but I was still on greenhouse duty.

"We can take a look for ourselves," Sucrose said. "The daily tasks for today are complete. I could use the fresh air, too."

Alchemy was undoubtedly Sucrose's number one interest, and learning more about the world didn't stop there. Though she came off as extremely shy at first, I bet close to nothing could stop Sucrose once she became intrigued.

I waited for her to reactivate the lock once we left the greenhouse, and then it was off to follow the group of students that left footprints in the snow leading to the main quad. Sucrose wore only a light jacket, but the cold didn't seem to bother her. Did she use alchemy to infuse her clothes with heat? Or was there more to her animal ears—an inhuman trait that naturally kept her warm?

The questions barely kept my mind occupied, and then I began to hear snippets of conversation once we finally caught up with everyone else.

"Are you sure Tartaglia's in a fight with someone? I thought he stopped doing that months ago," said one person.

"I'm more surprised they've been fighting for so long. I didn't know there was anyone else strong enough and careless enough to break the rules," said another.

"I hope they haven't destroyed the teleport waypoint," grumbled the first person. "I wanted to stock up on those croissants from the bakery."

Childe was fighting someone? I tuned out the side conversations and sorted through the possibilities of what could have happened. Those students weren't the only ones surprised that another person was willing to fight Childe. Then again, there's a chance that that person had no choice. Of all people to be put in such a position, Kaeya was the first one in mind.

Had it really taken this long for Childe's anger to take form? When Kaeya had gone missing at breakfast, I thought he'd been mildly bullied into keeping a distance.

Kaeya fighting Childe would undoubtedly result in Kaeya getting kicked off the student council. As much as he complained about the role, it came with perks and opportunities. Plus, there were moments when I noticed Kaeya enjoy interacting with students. I didn't want him to lose that—especially because of me.

My worry grew just as the energy from others' excitement did. Sure, a fight between them would be amazing to see from a battle perspective, but this was hardly the time or place. I quickened my pace, and Sucrose didn't seem to mind keeping up.

Our progress came to a halt when we reached a wall of students. The commotion of battle could be heard, but I couldn't see anything past the impenetrable barricade of bodies. I jumped a couple of times and stood on my toes, but none of that worked. Fine—I'd just have to go around.

"Who is that?" I heard multiple people whisper. "I've never seen him before."

Another voice caught my ear. "No idea, but I'm impressed. Maybe I need glasses, but it looks like Tartaglia is actually struggling."

"Struggling with a smile, though. Crazy guy."

My determination to cut around the crowd subsided when I heard that. How could these students not know who Kaeya was? It was more likely that Childe's opponent wasn't Kaeya at all, then. Should I be relieved or even more worried that he was up against an unknown opponent?

More people had arrived now, so it became increasingly difficult to get around everyone. I didn't want to leave Sucrose stranded, either. Instead, I made use of the gossip around me and focused my attention on the words flying around.

"You would think Hydro versus Hydro would be a fair fight."

"I had to move back to avoid getting splashed. Hypothermia is so not going to help with classes this week."

"Hey, does anyone want to make a bet on the winner? My mora is on Tartaglia."

"That's stupid. Do you really not recognize who his opponent is? I'm betting against Tartaglia."

Someone knew the opponent?

"Who is he?" I shouted, hoping my voice carried over the sea of students.

I didn't get a reply from anyone, and my frustration grew. At this rate, I wouldn't have any answers until the fight was over. By the sounds of it, Childe was at a disadvantage—which I found very hard to believe. My eyes were even less helpful than my ears. I was only able to glimpse the briefest flashes of blue as people jostled around.

Hydro versus Hydro. What other Hydro user was strong enough to fight Childe, and why would they want to?

"There's clearly some sort of brawl taking place, but it's difficult to get a grasp on the situation." Sucrose sighed beside me. "Fortunately, I believe I can make an educated guess based on the information available so far."

I ducked down to hear her words better. "You know who Childe is fighting?"

"I hypothesize that Tartaglia's opponent is last year's Champion."

I gawked at her. "What?"

How could Sucrose possibly know who the Champion was? By now, it was obvious that any trace of his existence had been wiped from everyone's minds. Was Sucrose different somehow? Did she protect her memory with alchemy? I looked at her ears again and fought the urge to slap myself. No matter how curious I was about them, there's no way her fluffy ears resulted in this miracle.

"I wouldn't have come to this conclusion if not for earlier. When I acted strange in the greenhouse, it was because I suddenly remembered we had a Champion last year," she said simply. "I normally don't pay attention to those kinds of events, but it's odd for me to have forgotten someone of his stature."

"What's his name?" I asked sharply. "Sucrose, what's the Champion's name?"

She blushed sheepishly. "I'm not sure. We never met in person, so I only heard about him in passing. I've only ever known him as the Champion, though he hasn't had the title for very long."

I stepped away from her—shocked.

"That guy was last year's Champion?" Someone from the crowd echoed my thoughts, though it was hard to hear over my thundering heartbeat. "I should reconsider entering the Grand Tournament and take another year to train instead. He's on another level."

The Champion was here.

He was fighting Childe. Why?

"I'm going to take a closer look," I said to Sucrose before abandoning my manners and diving deeper into the crowd.

There were small complaints from the people I pushed through, but nothing could stop me now. After all this time, I would finally have my answer—and maybe, just maybe—I would have my brother back, too. With one last effort, I burst through the crowd and stumbled into an open space.

In front of me, the once peaceful snowy scenery had deteriorated into a mess of puddles and mud. Two figures clashed with each other, and I realized that the spectating crowd had gathered a healthy distance away from the real battle.

My legs moved forward on their own. The steps I took were slow and measured as I assessed the situation, but they gradually picked up speed the closer I got. As my heart continued to hammer in my chest, I recognized one of them to be Childe. He didn't see me—too focused on his opponent. Without a bow in sight, Childe launched a volley of Hydro blades that cut through the air toward his opponent.

His opponent with a long braid of blond hair.

His opponent—who simply held out one hand, sending the blades back to their owner.

His opponent. My brother. Aether.

The exact moment I realized it was really him—the very second I opened my mouth to say his name—Aether noticed me, too.

As though his fight with Childe was the least important thing in the world, Aether's attention snapped toward me with an alarm that quickly morphed into the same shock that I felt. Even from this distance, I recognized those eyes. I saw them every day when I looked in the mirror, and I saw them in my dreams—memories—of our childhood.

Golden and bright.

Aether's lips parted, and I saw the shape of my name form on his lips.

The rest of the world fell away as I ran toward him, and so did he toward me. Together, after all these years, we closed the distance.