Genshin Impact, I, a mere mortal, cannot accompany you to the very end.

She stood too high, and even today, Ying stands too high, her gaze atop the clouds, overlooking all the lights of homes, standing at the end of eternity, where fleeting lives cannot be observed.

She noticed that Kiyono Sara had stopped, seemingly trying to dissuade a boy from going into the mountains. Her gaze did not linger; it was directed at something broader. She looked down at everyone, at all the people and mortals of the mountains, observing their movements to see if they had all left the filthy place.

It has been like this for a hundred years, it has been like this for three days, it has always been like this.

Why would one focus on a particular person?

Even if it's just for a fleeting moment.

—In fact, the shadow has never changed.

Draw your sword.

"call."

Eyes woven from threads of lightning slowly opened, and a torrent of lightning surged forth like a tide, all converging into that single strike. Spanning hundreds of miles of time, the unexpected strike fell from the sky.

The filth gradually disappeared amidst the pure white gleam of the blade.

The lightning bolt struck the boy in the middle of summer dusk. The cherry blossoms were magnificent and beautiful, their colors so rich they seemed to burn. The lightning bolt was right in front of him, within arm's reach, and then vanished in an instant.

He was right in front of that bolt of lightning.

Narukami Island is beautiful, especially at sunset when the sun shines down on the mountains and the red clouds are intertwined with the drizzling rain.

"call..."

ended.

But the lightning did not linger; it did not see him, nor did it illuminate him.

In the summer on Narukami Island, at dusk and when the cherry blossoms were just beginning to fall, they brushed past each other.

She wanted to return to the Pure Land of One Heart to continue that endless duel. She had no time to care about the human world, nor about the isolated island of Inazuma under the blockade of thunder. Whether the lights were bright or dim, the lights were irrelevant to her.

Sheathed her sword and withdrew her gaze. The sea of ​​flowers covering the mountain in Narujindo quickly disappeared from her sight. She returned to the castle tower, where the dark and desolate tower exuded the oppressive atmosphere of hundreds of years. The roots of ivy on the outer wall had penetrated into the cracks in the wall.

Ying lowered her eyes.

"You'll be back soon."

Suddenly, the general spoke up.

“Shadow, you’ve never changed,” the general said calmly. “You’ve always enjoyed doing meaningless things.”

"...What's the meaning."

"Making puppets for the dying is one thing, and now competing with me is another," the general said calmly. "All along, you've been running away."

“I am not who I used to be. I want to leave this attic, leave this so-called ‘eternity’,” Shadow shook his head. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have chosen to kill you. You were my obsession.”

Is that so?

The general said, “But if you really abandoned me, how come you couldn’t kill me? You have defeated me many times, but I always come back stronger. I see no future in you. I cannot accept you.”

"You are still you, you have never changed—you are still running away. It's not that I'm keeping you in this attic, it's that you can't get out of this attic—like making a doll for a dying person, it's just your psychological comfort in the end, because you don't want to witness the death of a dying person, so you trap yourself in the attic."

"The same is true now."

"Your duel with me now is just you 'making a puppet,' you're just running away."

"Therefore you can never leave this attic. The duel to 'leave eternity' is also a kind of 'eternity'."

As a martial artist, amidst endless duels and battles, you can attain eternal peace and tranquility; you are no different now than you were five hundred years ago.

"If that weren't the case, you would have won long ago."

"Because of the death of a mortal, you had the idea of ​​wanting to change things, but you have never changed at all. You are just using it as an excuse to continue to live peacefully in the eternal Pure Land."

"So you can never kill me—that's why I say you always like to do meaningless things."

"If we could meet again, you wouldn't miss it"—you once said that. But if we did meet again, you would still miss it, because you are still the same person you were before, unchanged.

"film."

It's not like this.

It's not like this.

This is not the case.

The box of pastries was still in my arms, and the pastries were still fresh, the milky white dumplings emitting a faint fragrance.

Ying gently pursed her lips.

She didn't realize that she had subconsciously gripped the hem of her clothes.

“That’s not it,” she finally said softly. “No.”

She emphasized the words "cannot".

"Moreover," Shadow gazed at the dark leaden sky, "that mortal is already dead."

"Let's continue."

She drew her naginata, her voice cold and deep, as the gloomy night sky, intertwined with the evening rain, fell upon her pure white kimono.

...

Qingye Tofu Shop.

A light drizzle was falling outside the window of the old shop.

The broth made from pork bones exudes a faint fragrance, and the tofu sizzles in the pot as oil slowly seeps into the soft layers of tofu; there is an old-fashioned little table with a kotatsu lit on it, the warm firelight spreading out.

Kiyono Sara knelt earnestly on the tatami mat, her posture meticulous, her body upright, her buttocks resting on her delicate ankles, her fair hands crossed in front of her knees.

She wouldn't act recklessly in this old shop.

To her right was the cynical and irreverent court official.

Miss Fox lay on the desk, stretching slightly, her narrow eyes watching her with a mischievous and somewhat wicked gaze—Kiyono Sara didn't know the specific meaning behind that look.

Upon hearing about her so-called 'duel' with the boy, Yae no Miko burst out laughing and readily agreed to her bet with the boy. Meanwhile, ever since she sat down, she had been staring at her with that strange look.

To her right was a girl with short blonde hair.

She was staring at him with a wary and displeased look, like a golden retriever sizing up a little tiger that had intruded into its territory, saying something like, "Leave right away after you're done eating..."

The strangest thing... was the boy in the kitchen.

It's very strange.

It's quite bizarre.

A strange sense of déjà vu... a sense of déjà vu that Kiyono Sara was unwilling to acknowledge.

The silhouettes are overlapping.

She knew it was just her imagination.

But the smell of that fox udon was so familiar, as if it had traveled through a very, very long time.

"It's done."

Kiyono Raimei placed several bowls of udon noodles on the wooden table, wiped non-existent beads of sweat from his forehead, and put on an expression that said, "I'm exhausted, let me brag for a bit."

With uncertainty.

She gently picked up a piece of tofu, put it in her mouth, and chewed it slowly.

half an hour.

Kiyono Sara seemed uncertain, took another bite, paused, but didn't say anything. She remained silent for a long time.

She wouldn't deny the taste.

...just like the taste buds in my memory.

-

P.S.: Phew, I'm exhausted! I'll put my hands on my hips for a moment!

Chapter 124 The So-Called 'Dad's' Taste

It was drizzling outside the courtyard.

Hazy.

White cherry blossoms, along with silvery raindrops, splashed onto the old threshold, blurring the lines between blossoms and rain. The night was hazy and indistinct, and the drizzle drenched the late cherry blossoms in a flurry of activity.

Listening to the cherry blossom rain, my heart inexplicably calmed down.

A calm mind is conducive to thinking and recalling.

Sara knelt on the futon, the orange glow of the kotatsu illuminating her delicate profile. This aloof and reserved female warrior closed her eyes slightly, gently chewing on the yellowed fish tofu between her lips and tilting her head.

The last time I tasted this flavor was on a clear morning after a heavy snowfall, and the first time I tasted it was even earlier.

When that mountain forest—her hometown—was destroyed, Kiyono Raimei adopted her, and it was in this small shop that he made her her first Kiyono tofu.

Back then, it was drizzling just like today.

The little tengu nestled beside the kotatsu, its head bowed, its eyes wide with curiosity as it stared at the man... Come to think of it, eleven years have passed.

The taste hasn't changed.

She had also tasted Kiyono Tofu made by Yae no Miko, and although it was delicious, it was still somewhat different from what she remembered. But the tofu made by this young man today felt very familiar.

As the soft tofu melted in her mouth and she swallowed its warmth down her throat, Kiyono Sara felt very warm. Even though it was still drizzling outside the window, she felt warm all over, the warmth spreading to her limbs.

It's so warm...so warm it makes you want to cry.

"How is it?" Qing Nuoyan asked.

Kiyono Sara stared at the bowl of fox udon in a slightly daze, murmuring softly, "This..."

Miss Yae, resting her chin on her hand, her narrow fox eyes curving into crescent moons, looked at Kiyono Sara with a teasing gaze, and spoke first with a mischievous grin:

"Does it smell like Dad?"

His tone rose slightly, with a hint of mischievousness.

...What the hell are you talking about?

What does "dad's taste" mean?