The next day.
When Raiden Makoto opened her eyes, Raiden Ei's pretty face appeared before her. Her younger sister was clinging to her hand like a kitten, holding her tightly.
At this moment, Raiden Ei was smacking her lips and talking in her sleep: "Delicious... so delicious..."
Raiden Makoto gently caressed Raiden Ei's small face. Her sister always seemed like a child who would never grow up, but did she really understand nothing? Raiden Makoto knew that her sister actually understood everything, but in front of her, she simply didn't want to think.
When Raiden Makoto tried to pull her hand away, Raiden Ei held her even tighter, her brow furrowing slightly as if she were having a nightmare.
"Sister, don't go."
Then Raiden Ei opened her eyes. There were a few tears at the corners of her eyes as she gazed deeply at Raiden Makoto.
"Sister?"
"Having a nightmare?" Raiden Makoto looked at Raiden Ei with a gentle expression and stroked Raiden Ei's small head. "I won't leave in the future."
"Mhm, mhm..." Raiden Ei pressed her small head against her chest with a look of satisfaction. After five hundred years in the Plane of Euthymia, she thought she would never see her sister again.
She had been immersed in that nightmare for five hundred years; whenever she closed her eyes, she saw that disaster, that nightmare.
Her sister had passed away in her arms, and she had been powerless.
Even as a God, she was powerless against an insurmountable enemy. From then on, her mindset began to shift toward eternity.
Only by capturing eternity can one obtain eternity.
"Sister..." Raiden Ei nuzzled into her arms like a kitten and hugged Raiden Makoto tightly. "You're back, I'm so happy."
"Mhm."
"Get up now." Raiden Makoto rubbed Raiden Ei's small head. "Though I don't know why I was resurrected..."
"But that's not important now. No one will disturb us anymore, and we can be together forever."
"But you also have to grow up."
"Mhm, mhm."
When Raiden Makoto and Raiden Ei walked out of the room, they saw Kamisato Ayaka walking over from the side.
"Makoto... you're awake."
She truly couldn't handle her liquor. After drinking a few cups of sake yesterday, she had become somewhat unconscious, and she didn't know what happened afterward.
"Did you enjoy your meal yesterday?" Raiden Makoto asked with a smile, but Ayaka looked a bit guilty as she met Raiden Makoto's gaze, as if she had done something wrong.
"Mhm, mhm." Thus, Ayaka didn't dare to look directly at Raiden Makoto. Coupled with the somewhat cold gaze Raiden Ei was giving her, she simply lowered her head.
"I've never eaten so many delicious dishes; Makoto's culinary skills are truly excellent."
"Where is the puppet? Why is that girl, the puppet, nowhere to be seen?" Raiden Makoto glanced at Raiden Ei. Upon waking up in the morning, only Raiden Ei had been clinging to her like a kitten, while the puppet seemed to have disappeared.
"The puppet?" Raiden Ei was also taken aback. She actually couldn't drink much either, but she was much better than Raiden Makoto. However, because she was happy yesterday, she had also drunk a bit too much.
"I don't know..."
The one among the Seven Gods who could drink the most should be that Anemo Archon in Mondstadt, who exuded an unreliable aura all over; she didn't like him much anyway.
"Ayaka, where did the puppet go?"
Ayaka was stunned for a moment, then she shook her head. "I don't know where the puppet is either..."
She already knew that the little girl who came with Raiden Makoto and Raiden Ei was the Puppet Shogun who had ruled Inazuma all along. It was just that Makoto's sister, Ei, had taken back her body and created a new body for the Puppet Shogun.
The Raiden Shogun she had met several times was also that little girl.
"But yesterday she seemed to go out with Lumine and the others..." Ayaka said thoughtfully. After her failure, she had also drunk several cups of sake in distress and felt a bit gloomy, so the memories in her mind weren't very clear.
She vaguely remembered that the puppet seemed to have run out with Lumine and Paimon, but as for where they were now, she really didn't know.
"Mhm."
"Ei, exactly how many restrictions did you set for the puppet?" Raiden Makoto was actually a bit curious. From the look of things now, the puppet's intellect was very high, and her level of intelligence was definitely no different from that of an ordinary person.
"It seems... it seems there are several hundred..." Raiden Ei felt a bit guilty. She carefully glanced at Raiden Makoto and saw Raiden Makoto's helpless expression. "Sister, when I was manufacturing the puppet, I even considered that I might regret it one day, so I set over a dozen extra restrictions."
"Speaking of which, transferring her to her current body wasn't easy."
"Sister Makoto, Sister Makoto!"
"Something terrible has happened!"
"The puppet has gotten into a fight with someone!" Just as Raiden Makoto was about to say a few words to Raiden Ei, Paimon rushed in from outside and said in a panic, "The puppet is fighting with someone in Hanamizaka!"
"What?" Raiden Makoto was stunned. "You took the puppet out to fight?"
"No... it wasn't us!" Paimon quickly argued. How could she be expected to shoulder such a huge blame alone?
"The puppet directly started fighting with that person herself."
"Take us to see." Raiden Makoto's forehead was covered in black lines. She had originally thought the puppet would be a bit more obedient and well-behaved, but now it seemed the puppet and Ei were likely the same—neither of them was well-behaved at all.
"Mhm, mhm."
...Hanamizaka.
"Kujou Sara is the General of the Tenryou Commission after all, how can you call her a loyal dog?"
"The Great Itto doesn't just call her a loyal dog, I call her a simp too! What tengu clan? The Great Itto thinks the Kujou Loyal Dog is from the simp clan!" At this moment, in front of the puppet stood a young man with somewhat revealing clothes and crimson eyes, with a scar on his face.
The young man had very conspicuous horns on his head, and his voice was very loud at the moment. Quite a few Inazuma people had gathered around them now.
"How can a mere mortal like you question Kujou Sara's loyalty to me? I will have you inlaid upon the statue!" The puppet's tender face was filled with anger, but when she was about to draw her blade from her chest, she realized she wasn't in that body right now.
Mother Makoto wanted her to be good and told her she couldn't say things like'slay' anymore, so she changed her words.
Oh well, she was no longer in that body.
"You little brat, whose kid are you? You're so annoying. The Great Itto must properly educate you on behalf of your parents today!" As a weapon resembling a spiked club appeared in the young man's hand, the expression on his face became much more ferocious.
"Stop!" Lumine stepped forward directly and stood between the puppet and the young man. "Kujou Sara is the General of the Shogunate Army after all, why are you insulting her?"
"The Kujou Loyal Dog... took away the Great Itto's Vision! Even a decision as absurd as the Vision Hunt Decree, the Kujou Loyal Dog carried it out. If she isn't a loyal dog, then who is?" The young man was quite angry. "You're defending the Kujou Loyal Dog so much, you wouldn't happen to be lackeys of the Tenryou Commission too, would you? The Great Itto must teach you a good lesson today!"
"Arataki Itto, besides shouting in Hanamizaka every day, what else can you do? You're so annoying."
In the morning, Kujou Sara and the soldiers of the Tenryou Commission were conducting their normal patrol in Inazuma City when she encountered Arataki Itto. She could really hear Arataki Itto's loud voice from far away.
"I didn't even trouble you for your graffiti all over Inazuma." Kujou Sara's face was somewhat cold, then she saw Lumine and the puppet, and she couldn't help but be taken aback.
"Kujou... Tengu! You've come at the right time... let's go to the crossroads and have a fair and square sumo duel!" The young man was indeed Arataki Itto, and he looked eager to try as he watched Kujou Sara.
"The Great Itto won't lose again!" A smile of bold satisfaction filled Arataki Itto's face, and he even looked a bit excited.
Vengeance is mine, vengeance is mine at last!
"You stupid Crimson Oni, do you have any idea how annoying you are... truly annoying, nattering on every single day."
"Puppet... why do I always feel like there's something between those two? They don't seem like enemies, they seem more like a bickering couple?" The more Lumine looked at Kujou Sara and Arataki Itto, the more he felt something was very wrong.
"bickering couple? What is a bickering couple?" The puppet's small face was full of confusion. "Lumine, what's a bickering couple?"
"Um..." Looking at the puppet's tender face, Lumine found it a bit difficult to explain; that seemed a bit inappropriate for children.
"It's the Grand Narukami and the Lady Puppet!"
"It really is the Grand Narukami!"
"Why would the Grand Narukami come to Hanamizaka?"
Hearing the surrounding Inazuma citizens say that Raiden Makoto and Raiden Ei had arrived, Kujou Sara quickly tidied her appearance. "Stupid Crimson Oni, I won't settle accounts with you for now. The Grand Narukami has arrived."
As the Inazuma citizens who were watching the commotion made way for Raiden Makoto and Raiden Ei, Raiden Makoto was seen slowly walking over from that direction.
"Grand Narukami!" Kujou Sara knelt on one knee with a look of respect. "I am currently patrolling the streets of Inazuma."
"Mhm." Raiden Makoto nodded with satisfaction. "Patrolling the streets so early in the morning, not bad."
"Mother Makoto!" The puppet ran over with a smile, but then her face fell and she said a bit aggrievedly, "Mother Makoto, that guy bullied me!"
She pointed at Arataki Itto, who was dazed on the spot.
"He said he was going to properly educate me on your behalf, said my mother must have no manners, and said that if Mother Makoto and Mother Ei came over, he would give them a good beating too." The puppet said aggrievedly, looking quite pitiful.
"Oh?" Raiden Makoto saw through the puppet's exaggeration at a glance, and as she looked at Arataki Itto, she murmured to herself, "A youth of the Oni race?"
Arataki Itto was dumbfounded. How could he have known that the child was actually related to the Raiden Shogun? As someone who hung around Inazuma City, how could he not know that their Raiden Shogun was actually a pair of sisters?
Now everyone called the elder sister the Grand Narukami and the younger sister the Lady Puppet.
And that child actually called the Grand Narukami and the Lady Puppet 'Mother Makoto' and 'Mother Ei'. Arataki Itto was completely stunned.
"A youth of the Oni race, a descendant of Chiyo." Raiden Makoto said with some emotion. Looking at Kujou Sara and Arataki Itto, she couldn't help but recall Sasayuri and Mishiro Chiyo of the past.
Sasayuri had passed away during the Archon War, and she was powerless to resurrect him. Mishiro Chiyo had been completely consumed by the Abyss and finally died at the hands of her own children. Unlike Kitsune Saiguu, she could not resurrect Mishiro Chiyo either.
"I heard him say you two have a duel?" Raiden Makoto looked at Kujou Sara with interest. Because of Arataki Itto's status as a member of the Oni race, she felt no ill will toward him, so she was actually quite interested.
"Grand Narukami... when I confiscated his Vision, I defeated him. Since then, he has been shouting every day to duel with me, saying that according to some ancient monster's rules, we should have a sumo duel at the crossroads..." Kujou Sara only felt it was absurd. How could she possibly engage in a sumo duel with Arataki Itto?
"Grand Narukami, is there really such a rule for ancient monsters?" Kujou Sara was a bit curious. She had grown up in the Kujou Clan since childhood and knew very little about the tengu clan or the rules of monsters.
"Of course not." Raiden Makoto looked at Arataki Itto and only felt that the Oni youth before her was rather interesting.
"Chiyo's descendant... his personality is completely different from Chiyo's," Raiden Makoto observed Arataki Itto with interest.
"Grand Narukami... I... I am Itto of the Arataki Gang..." In front of Raiden Makoto and Raiden Ei, he really didn't dare to shout anymore. He dared to constantly provoke Kujou Sara, but how could he dare to provoke the Raiden Shogun?
"The puppet said you bullied her, is that true?" Raiden Makoto held the puppet and looked at Arataki Itto with a smile.
"The puppet?" Arataki Itto was stunned for a moment, then he realized that the 'puppet' Raiden Makoto was referring to was the little girl.
Looking at it now, the little girl seemed to bear a seventy to eighty percent resemblance to Raiden Makoto and Raiden Ei, as if she were the daughter of Raiden Makoto and Raiden Ei.
"Grand Narukami, impossible! How could that be? How could I bully a little girl?" Arataki Itto quickly shook his head. He, a bold man with the blood of the Oni race flowing in his body, how could he bully a little girl? That was definitely not him!
"You've been shouting every day for Sara to have a sumo duel with you?" Raiden Makoto couldn't help but cover her face. To have Kujou Sara wear a sumo outfit—she didn't know what the Oni youth before her was thinking.
sumo was also a form of hand-to-hand combat between men.
"Cough..." Arataki Itto didn't answer Raiden Makoto's question. "I just want to duel with Kujou Sara!"
"Fine, you are permitted to challenge Sara to a Shogunate Duel." Raiden Makoto nodded. However, when Raiden Makoto finished speaking, Arataki Itto truly panicked.
A Shogunate Duel was something where people actually died!
"No, no, no, Lady Puppet, I'm not looking to start a Shogunate Duel!" Arataki Itto was in a bit of a panic. How could he possibly want to start a Shogunate Duel?
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