Cold Clouds 3 - (Genshin Impact, Ganyu!SI)
It's been three years since my father and I moved to Guili, and things have been relatively 'fine' for us.
While working hours remained mostly unchanged, I took my personal promise to train myself in mastering the divine nature I was stuck with with as much care and discipline as possible. It was mostly during weekends, when dad would go for shorter shifts as a pharmacist and thus I didn't need to worry about keeping up with the pressure of being a 'dutiful daughter'.
Saturdays and Sundays gave me hours and hours to think, plan, train and, most important of them all, test out the full power I had as a half-Qilin before the Archon War. From what I could recall, Celestia had yet to impose erosion, and the Gods/Archons were still quite powerful without requiring to wield the powers of the Elements to the extent that post-Archon Wars era would demand.
My favorite place to train was the Yaoguang Shoal, around East to the settlements in Guili. Without any monsters around, and plenty of rocks to hide away while testing out my abilities in 'almost' complete peace, I found it easy to take notes on what 'I' was.
My half-divine self was indeed surprising as I could indeed see I had an affinity with Cryo and... Electro. The last one shouldn't be much of a shocker since Qilins were meant to be representations of the cloud: cold within, but alas a thunderous monster waiting for just cause to act.
Two full years were spent split between controlling the elemental energy I could muster through meditation and practice, and the necessity to improve my martial ability. Ganyu's skills in archery were nothing to scoff at, but considering the elevated level of combat prowess that such an elemental combination could give me, I had decided to try my hands at weapons that would involve me in close-quarters.
Claymores were outright rejected at first try. It wasn't even a matter of lifting heavy weapons, but it was a matter of equilibrium which I lacked when using these sturdy weapons. Next up was a sword, but, even then, I felt the balance was too light.
In the end, I stuck with a bokken that I had the opportunity to see created after paying a hefty expense at the local blacksmith. The piece was not divine, but it was strong enough to take a beating as I trained with it for several months, happily finding balance and potency within each flexible strike I would deliver to my training dummies.
Just two weeks ago, I had started testing out the chance of wielding my powers in a more 'complex' manner. Up to that point it was just 'support' like using spray-like Cryo blasts akin to Kaeya's elemental skill, or even producing shards of Electro similar to Lumine when she used the element.
I was planning to eventually have something less elementally-affined and more 'elemental dense' such as pure energy that could be translated as a beam of light or... a Kamehameha. I wanted to get a Kamehameha going, but there were issues regarding channeling the right amount of energy and the chances that the output caused by my divine power would be...
Far more destructive than a normal Kamehameha.
So, I centered my aim to something simpler. And softer. I made a cloud. Silvery blue, it didn't glow and it could lift me with ease. The upkeep was also reasonable despite my young age, and I was able to fully test it to be able to work for roughly five hours at full capacity, close to eight if I took its speed slowly and with ease.
I could happily say that I made some solid progress. And this Saturday was the same as usual since I left the training grounds sweaty, tired, but overall content with the progress I had made. All was supposedly meant to be quite smooth as I would get home, get a nice warm bath and then help dad around with any remaining house chores that needed attending.
This expectation was, however, bound to be shattered right as I was crossing the bridge leading to Guili and I felt something land atop my head and, cleverly so, avoiding to perch on my horns. I didn't have anything against people touching my horns, but it can get fucking weird so fast and I guess Ganyu's shy nature made her extremely opposed to be cornered about it as a child and beyond.
The source of the extra weight was none other than the bird that had been watching 'over me' for three years now and his first word to me was indeed the best way to almost make me crap my pants.
"Help."
I tensed up, eyes wide open. "H-Heh? What help? Who needs help?"
"Rex... Lapis... Judge."
I was still tense, my brain racing as it tried to grasp what the fuck was going on.
"Judge? Judge what? Or who?"
"Guizhong... and Cloud Retainer. Their works."
I frowned as I heard those things. The two names, their inventions, the Guizhong Ballista and...
God, why am I being pulled into this?
"Why?"
"You smart."
Gee thanks.
"And what do I get out of this?"
"Help?" Xiao pressed and I sighed.
"Yes, that's a 'job' since I have no stake in this. What do I get as a form of 'payment' that can make me want to take this job? It doesn't have to be Mora but-"
"I don't tell Rex Lapis that... you are doing strange things."
...How old is Xiao at this point? This kindergarten-level bribery.
Still, I wasn't going to reject the chance to bribe my warden so easily. I still sighed loudly and closed my eyes.
"Fine. So, where am I supposed to go-ooohhhh!"
I forgot Xiao could do crazy teleportation shit through Anemo. I also forgot that this was not something people should be 'fine' doing together with him and... I facelanded on stone. I didn't broke anything, but I definitely got a bruise on my forehead for this.
As I got up, ready to teach Xiao the true meaning of screwing with a potty-mouthed girl such as myself, I was stunned by the sight of Morax glancing at me with a frown... while the other two familiar ladies were currently jabbing at each other and at their inventions. We were in the 'place where they would meet' up near Mt. Aocang.
The first invention on sight was the familiar Guizhong Ballista, the other looked a slender contraption similar to it that I assumed was Xianyun's version of the weapon. I was not... a fan of either. While I can understand the basis behind the Guizhong Ballista, I also felt it was what pretty much killed Liyue's military strength for centuries.
Not because it was a bad weapon at this point, but because its name would limit the usage and the improvements that could be made to it upon newer models because Guizhong would die before that could happen. The only one that would add variations was Xianyun, and even then it was a limited 'for her sake' sort of deal.
As I approached the intense confrontation, Morax seemed to realize it was time to get the attention aimed at me as he stood up from his seat. The gesture caused the two women to pause and then turn their gazes at me.
"Xiao told me that this is getting silly. What is going on?"
I admit that the tiredness may be playing a bit over my capacity to be respectful. Luckily for me, Morax was laidback after hours of getting hammered by two yapping ladies trying to play penis-comparison by using high-velocity ballistas as their metaphorical representation.
What I was told was pretty much what I had expected: both ladies were in a competition to prove one is superior to the other, that their weapon was better and cooler than the other's and their specs, as limited as they were, were nothing bad.
If compared to weapons meant to be used against mortals.
From my understanding, the biggest 'shell' was shot by the Guizhong Ballista and what I translated as a 30mm type of ammunition. The Xianyun Ballista used 20mm 'ammo', but it had a longer barrel that allowed for precise and faster shots.
Thinking back about some similar WW2 equivalents, I couldn't help but be honest with what I was looking at and what I was meant to judge as a 'fitting weapon' to ward the Guili Assembly. I mean, I had a stake in the protection of the very place my father and I had settled for the time being.
"I don't like either of those two."
My answer seemed to 'break' the peace again.
"You... you don't?" Guizhong legitimately sounded deflated by this, but her rival was a bit less defeatist on the matter.
"Young child, this one was sure the task was simple: you need to pick one of those, not just say that you don't like-"
"But both are ineffective with the current goal in mind," I interrupted Xianyun, frowning at her. "Sure, they are good prototypes with rudimentary systems, but they are too 'limited' in their potential. From my understanding, the process to create at least a few of those is tedious, repairing is also a nightmare. So, it is quite clear that such weapons, that are needed to be used in large quantities to safely push back any aggressive entity that may be close to be a god, are unfit to the current task. I would give them both passing grades and push the two of you to produce improved models at once. The focus should be on rendering glaring flaws such as recoil, reload, and maintenance to a faster and cheaper level, but also render production simplified for mass-production."
"So, what you are saying, young Ganyu, is that both weapons are unfit but... they can be improved to be 'accetpable?" Morax inquired, summarizing my thought as I nodded at his words.
"I think both can easily have a purpose within the defense of Guili from any threat. Where Lady Guizhong's Ballista can be tested to have a higher-caliber potency to be a heavy hitting weapon, Lady Xianyun can actually be a lighter version that preserves the current potency, but maybe with four barrels instead of just one that fire at a different pace from one another, it could turn into a fierce gun against fast foes."
As I finished listing out these words, I could see both women had gone very quiet and were thinking of what I had said. Morax looked extremely relieved at the end result and... I shrugged.
"So, if that's all you need, I will be going home. I have been delaying a nice warm bubble bath for too long so... Xiao?"
The bird chirped and soon we were out of that cuckoo nest for good-
With Morax sitting down again, looking at both women with a curious glint in his eyes.
"The child is quite smart, isn't she?"
Still distracted, both Guizhong and Xianyun nodded, but even as they just departed silently and without uttering a word, Morax was glad that this foolish competition could be put aside and...
More concerning thoughts could be addressed in regard to Osial's recent bouts of aggression against merchants making the trip to Inazuma and what it could mean to the Assembly as a whole.
AN
Next time... Ganyu does a crazy thing. Peace is no longer an option when the Waves need to be conquered through the means of destructive powers.
Also, super giddy since I completed my book's 'intermediary' draft, put it all in PDF and gave copies to my parents to read. Dad is helping pointing out any odd words while mom is just as excited since she likes the story.
The book will prolly come out around mid-January/early-February and it will be in Italian at first. More of this will be addressed in the Discord Server once it is out.