บท 16: Rock N Roll
Apologies everyone, been trying to build some time to update the story. Anyway, this note is just to ask if you have any suggestions for the future. As you probably know, the current Arc of this story is called the Arcana Arc, pretty obvious why that's the case.
As some have figured out already, since it is only an Arc, I have things planned for the future beyond the Arcanas. I was just hoping to ask you all if you have any suggestions, and while I do have some ideas myself, I'm open to getting suggestions from you all.
Speaking of, the Arcana Arc will extend throughout the current three nations, being Mondstadt, Liyue and Inazuma. By the time the game ventures into the next nation, that will probably be when the next Arc after the current one will start.
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"Speech"
'Thoughts'
『System/Persona Speech』
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Keqing was currently making her way towards the area where Ayato should be training some of the Millelith that he was assigned to, and since it was nearing both of their break times, she was hoping to see if Ayato wanted to get something to eat together.
It had only been around four days now since Ayato had started training the Millelith, but his work had really shown good results despite the short time. Their soldiers had been getting stronger not only physically, but also far more competent when it came to fighting overall.
While Ayato's training methods were a bit on the extreme side, the results were truly worth it all. The Millelith had a difficult time at the start, but it was gradually getting easier as they continued going through the training. Since the results were clear, the respect that the Millelith had for Ayato continued to grow as well.
It wasn't just the Millelith, it was all of Liyue that started to respect him even more as well, especially the Liyue Qixing. Since the Millelith was the main military force that protected the citizens of Liyue, the stronger they were, the better they could protect the nation.
"It's Lady Keqing..."
"She's here again? Hasn't she been coming here every day since Lord Ayato started training us?"
"I still think she has a thing for him."
As Keqing heard the words from the current Millelith soldiers that were having a rest, she had a hard time keeping her composed look on her face, evident by the fact her face was twitching. The fact that her face was also heating up didn't help either, so she quickened her pace.
Taking a deep breath, she looked towards the training area to see that Ayato was currently sparring against five of the Millelith soldiers. Ayato was at the centre of the field while the soldiers were trying their best to attack Ayato, though the male seemed to be easily managing against the five.
"Your movements are becoming sloppy! Widen your stance! Tighten your grip on your weapon!"
On Ayato's side, when he first started training these soldiers, he was honestly surprised to see just how out of shape and sloppy their fighting was. Thanks to advice and training from Dagda, it had become easier for him to take notice of things that could help him become better as well as help during a fight.
From what he had seen from the Millelith at the start, the movements that they made during combat were very wasteful, and the number of ways that their fighting styles had countless openings that their opponents could exploit was honestly impressive... not in a good way.
The first thing he had decided for their training was to have extreme physical exercise to improve their stamina as well as overall strength, and not matter what gender said soldier was, he gave them the same training routine. He wasn't going to be subjugating female and males here.
The physical training would be done in the morning, and then it would move onto him personally helping them improve their fighting styles. It was honestly frustrating work considering how many soldiers he was left to train, but at least they were diligent and hard working.
Anyway, aside from him training the Millelith, Ayato had always made sure to get some training himself within the Timespace Dungeons. It had only been four days, so the Hard mode dungeon was still locked, but he had made sure to challenge the Easy and Normal modes each day.
From challenging the dungeon, he had been able to level himself as well as his Personas up gradually but surely. It was certainly much easier for him to grind inside the dungeons than it was for him to go out into the wild and fight against Hilichurls and all that. Along that, he obviously got new skills for some of his Personas.
Not only that, he had managed to gain himself some new Personas from the Easy mode dungeons, though none from the Normal mode. He had noticed how the probably of gaining a new Persona went down each time he did get one, since the original twenty percent for the Normal mode went down to fifteen.
Probably to prevent him from just easily grinding new Personas every day, otherwise he'd end up gaining so many Personas that he may not even know what to do with. Anyway, he had managed to get three new Personas from the Easy mode.
The first one he got was Orobas, which seemed to take after his Persona 4 version as he was quite the low level, being that of eight. Next was Nekomata, who was at level five. Finally, the last one he got was Agathion, who was only at level three, but the guy did give him resistance to Gun skills, in other words, ranged weapons.
With the number of Personas he had now, he was definitely going to go back to the Velvet Room either tonight or tomorrow morning. He wanted to see if he could start fusing some of his Personas, though he'd have to ask Igor about the conditions and consequences of summoning before he made any final decision.
If he were to fuse any Personas together, he'd probably use either Orobas or Nekomata since they were both Fire. Not only that, while it sounded rude, weren't as good as Sati right now since Sati blocked Fire instead of resisting it. Their future skills could prove useful, but other certain Personas could just as well learn those same skills.
With all the talk about Personas, Pixie had actually finally returned from deep within the Sea of Souls not too long ago. Judging from the time she evolved, that meant that Personas probably took around a week or so before they returned. Of course, he was just basing this off Pixie, he wasn't sure if it was the same for other Personas.
Anyway, regarding her, since she had been locked away for a good amount of time now, he really needed to start levelling her as well. He may use Pixie for a fusion in the future, and he wasn't sure if levels mattered, but just in case they do, he wanted to also train Pixie up. As of right now, she was still only a measly level six.
"Alright, that's enough for today." Ayato spoke as he slapped away a sword swing from one of the guards. Once he did that, all the guards that were sparring against him collapsed to the floor and started panting heavily. "I expect you all here early tomorrow morning, same time as usual!"
"Y-Yes, sir!"
With that, all the soldiers, including the ones on the ground, started leaving the grounds.
"Hard at work as usual." Turning his head, Ayato looked to see Keqing walking over towards him. An amused smirk on her face, she obviously saw him sparring against those last five soldiers. "A bit extreme for my tastes, but the results can't be ignored. Good work."
"No pain no gain, after all. You have to work hard if you want results, don't expect it to just be given to you." Ayato chuckled as he said these words. Keqing could agree with that wholeheartedly, people need to put in the work for the things they want. "So, how can I help you today?"
"Nothing really." Keqing shook her head as she responded. "I wanted to ask if you wanted to grab something to eat with me. Of course, unless you have something to attend to, you don't need to trouble yourself over this!"
"Sure, my schedule's free."
"Perfect, then let's get going!"
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The place that the both of them decided to grab something to eat was at Xiangling's restaurant, none of them really wanted to go somewhere too fancy right now, especially after a day of hard work. They'd rather relax somewhere peaceful than somewhere fancy.
As they had made their way over to the restaurant, the numerous citizens, as usual, gave Keqing her respectful greetings as she walked by. It wasn't just her though, they also gave their greetings to Ayato as well. It didn't take long before people really started to respect Ayato just as much as the Qixing, which he was now a part of.
While they didn't know for certain that Ayato was the one that defeated the Magician and was the supposed hidden Adeptus, they did have their suspicions he could be the one since it was a little strange for the Qixing to suddenly add him to their ranks out of the blue even though none of them had really heard of him until recently.
Anyway, these past few days have been rather busy for Ayato as he was obviously tasked with training the Millelith, as well as keeping up with his adventuring and training in the dungeon. He also sometimes volunteered to help out Ganyu with her paperwork, that woman was still pushing herself way too much.
He had also spent some time with a few others as well, such as Xiangling whenever he came over to her restaurant. As stated before, he obviously spent time chatting with Ganyu whenever he helped her out with her work. He also did almost have another run-in with Hu Tao, that crazy funeral girl.
"Here you both are!" Xiangling hopped on over to the table they were sat at, which was located outside at the front of the restaurant, before placing a number of dishes onto their table. "I hope you both enjoy, just call me if you need anything else!"
"Thanks, Ling-chan."
"No worries, Ayato!" With a wave, Xiangling skipped back into the restaurant to quickly grab the next order for her to serve. Honestly, Ayato was amazed by how Xiangling could be so full of energy all the time. She always looked so happy, and that energy was crazy.
"I'm curious..." Keqing voiced as Ayato turned to look at her with a curious look. Keqing had a confused look on her face as she then looked towards where Xiangling was. "How come you call her Ling... chan? Was it? Does that mean something?"
"Hm?" Ayato blinked when he heard the question, he honestly wasn't expecting such a question from her. Ayato then chuckled as he took hold of his chopsticks, he was obviously amused by the question. "It's just a nickname I gave her. Since we've become pretty close friends, I didn't see the harm. She doesn't seem to mind either."
"R-Really? Then why don't you give me one? Are we not friends?" Keqing asked with a curious tone, though Ayato could see that there was some hidden sadness behind those composed eyes of hers. Ayato smiled nervously at the look, he could see where she got that idea.
"No, no! Don't get me wrong, I consider the both of us good friends as well." Ayato waved his hand in front of his face as he said this. "It's just that we're co-workers in the Qixing, so I just didn't really find it appropriate to call you by a nickname. Wasn't entirely sure if you'd appreciate being given a nickname."
"I see..." Keqing nodded her head in understanding after hearing his reason. If she was being honest, she was kind of jealous hearing that, though she could understand his reasons. "I assume it's the same for Ganyu as well?"
"Ganyu-san? Well, she did also ask me about this particular topic, she did give me permission to call her by a nickname if I wanted to. Though, it was only when we're alone, like when I'm helping her out with work. I call her Gan-chan when we're alone."
"Guh-!" Keqing seemed to recoil back when Ayato spoke these words. Ayato just blinked at her and tilted his head when he saw this, confused by her strange reaction. Keqing didn't look at him directly, but she did speak. "Y-You can give me a nickname as well, I don't really mind..."
"Really? Then I'll call you Qing-chan when it's just us, if that's fine with you."
"That's fine...!"
"I see, then Qing-chan it is." Ayato chuckled as a smile formed on Keqing's face. He was pretty surprised that Keqing even cared about him not giving her a nickname, he didn't peg her for the type to care about such things. If anything, he assumed she would be against it. "Huh? What's that sound?"
Ayato attention was taken away from his food when a strange sound in the distance caught his attention, the sound seemed to originate from pretty far away elsewhere in the city as he couldn't really make out what the sounds even were. Nonetheless, he could still hear it.
"Hm?" Keqing blinked at the question before falling silent as she also listened carefully. Soon enough, a look of realisation seemed to strike her as she took a small drink. "Ah~, that must be Xinyan. She's probably performing right now, I do remember hearing about her asking to apply for one of her designated locations yesterday..."
"Xinyan? Is she a musician?"
"That's right." Keqing nodded. "Though, a number of the citizens here in Liyue don't really appreciate her performances all that much. Mainly since the type of music she plays isn't exactly what the people are used to. A number of people criticize her for her choice of music."
Ayato frowned at that, he didn't see why people should criticize others for what kind of music they choose to listen to or play. Everyone has their own personal taste, that goes for food, art and also music. Everyone has what they like, and what they dislike. It just sounded stupid that people would insult others for what they like.
Unless it was something truly questionable, people should just respect others likes and dislikes.
"What are your thoughts on her music then?
"I don't mind it, good music is still good music."
"I see." Ayato smiled at that, at least Keqing didn't judge this girl for her taste in music. "What kind of music does she play exactly?"
"I believe it's called Rock."
"Wait, Rock music?!" Ayato stood up from his seat and look at Keqing with widened eyes. Keqing seemed to be taken back by the sudden shout, but she nodded nonetheless. Ayato then grinned before placing some money on the table before leaping over the railing of the restaurant. "I'll be back, I'm going to check this performance out!"
"W-Wait, I'm coming too then!" Keqing quickly followed after him as the customers all stared at them in confusion when they saw the both of them running off into the distance. "A-Ayato, slow down! You're running way too fast!"
"Sorry, no can do! The Rock awaits!"
『A mysterious voice rings in your head...』
『I am thou...thou art I...』
『Thou shalt have our blessing when thou choosest to create a Persona of the Judgement Arcana...』
『The Keqing Social Link has reached level 5』
『Your powers to create Personas of the Judgement Arcana has grown』
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Ayato was a fan of music, and he had learnt how to sing mainly from his mother, but of all the different kinds of music that he loved listening to, Rock had to be one of, if not, the top favourite of his when it came to music genre.
He knew that rock music wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but he personally really enjoyed it. If he were to choose his favourite band that he listened to, it had to be Skillet. He just always loved the amount of energy and power you could feel in the voice of a rock music singer.
It didn't at all take long for him to locate where the performance was being held, all he needed to do after all was follow where the noise was coming and where the cheers were coming from. If the noise became louder, that just meant that he was getting closer.
When he arrived at the spot, he widened his eyes and big smile flashed onto his face when he saw a large stage area glowing brightly with flames that were dancing all over the place. The place was big enough that those flames didn't seem to cause any damage or safety hazards.
Obviously, in front of the stage were a large crowd of people who were all crazily cheering for the girl that was performing on stage. Hell, he could even see a number of the soldiers that he had been training also amongst the crowd enjoying the show as well.
"A-Ayato...!" Keqing finally caught up with the Godslayer as she was panting a bit heavily. "You didn't need to run so fast!"
"Sorry, sorry!" Ayato chuckled nervously as the purple-head glared at him with a pout. He then looked back towards the performance, his eyes giving off a sparkle as clenched his fists. "This is totally awesome! I didn't think there would be rock music here!"
"You certainly seem to love it..." Keqing caught her breath before sweat dropping when she saw the expression that Ayato was making. Ayato had always acted calm and composed, but now he looked like a kid in a candy store. "I've never seen you look so excited before."
"I can't help it, I just love rock music." Ayato shrugged, he saw nothing wrong with it. His eyes were curiously looking at the performer, appearing to be a young girl around their age, perhaps a bit younger. Ayato could tell she was enjoying herself up there as she strummed that guitar of hers, evident by that large smile.
Though, he was a bit curious and concerned since that guitar had a blade of sorts attached to its head, perhaps it was also a weapon alongside being an instrument. This world was a place full of monsters, so having a weapon was important. Carrying both an instrument and weapon would be annoying, so perhaps she just put them together to solve that.
"Let's get closer!"
"Eh? H-Hold on!" Keqing blinked before quickly following behind Ayato after he dashed up towards where the crowd was. Ayato managed to calmly push his way through to the front, Keqing staying close behind him so she wouldn't be swallowed by the crowd. "Do we really need to be this close?"
"Of course, I wanted front row seats." Ayato grinned Keqing pushed to stand beside him. They both looked up as they watched the girl known as Xinyan strumming away, full of energy for each strum. The fire really made the stage glow as well, and everyone here loved it. "Still can't believe someone plays rock music here..."
"As you can see, a lot of people love it, but a majority either hate it or aren't sure."
"I see, at least some people are enjoying it though."
"Indeed." Keqing couldn't help but smile as she saw the smile that was on Ayato's face as he looked up at the stage. The smile that usually had was always a calming smile, but the one she saw now was one full of excitement. "What made you come to love this type of music anyway?"
"What did? Hmm, it isn't anything crazy." Ayato smiled after chuckling. "I just heard this style of music before, then I just grew to love it. There isn't any crazy reason as to why, I just do. It's as simple as that really."
"Alright, folks! This has been one hell of a day, but unfortunately all good thing's have got to come to an end!" Xinyan shouted as the crowd all seemed pretty upset about it, they were obviously enjoying the show. "Come on now! This isn't the time to be all down in the dumps! Let's wrap this performance up with a big bang!"
'Damn, this girl has quite the accent.'
At her words, the crowd went from down to excited once again as the girl scanned the crowd with a critical gaze. When her eyes landed on the first row, she widened her eyes when she saw Ayato looking up towards her with his hands on his hips, a smile on his face as he did so.
"You there, aren't you the new Jiù Shì Zhǔ everyone's been talking about?" Xinyan shouted her question while dramatically pointing her finger down towards Ayato. Said male blinked when he was suddenly addressed, Keqing was also surprised as she did the same. "Why don't you come on up? Surely you have a fire in that soul of yours!"
Ayato was silent for a second before a grin broke out on his face. "Hoh~? Hell yeah, let's do this!"
"I like that spirit of yours, get on up here!" Xinyan grinned when she saw Ayato's energy. Ayato then jumped up onto the stage, his appearance causing quite the uproar considering how popular he had been becoming recently. "Oh~! The crowd's certainly excited to see what you can do. Don't be shy, show us what you got!"
"I won't disappoint." Ayato smirked before gesturing towards Xinyan's guitar. "Mind if I borrow that? Can't really rock it out without an instrument."
"Hm?" Xinyan was surprised by the request, but grinned soon after. "Go ahead!"
"Thanks!" Ayato grinned when Xinyan tossed the guitar over to him. When he caught it, he quickly swung the strap over his head before adjusting the cords. It was a unique looking guitar, but it seemed to be practically the same as any other electric guitar he's played. "Alright, here we go!"
"Come on, folks! Give him your loudest cheers!"
✦ Play Legendary by Skillet ✦
Immediately, just the start of the song immediately caught the attention of the crowd. That alongside the rather passionate screams that Ayato did, he hadn't even begun truly singing, yet he had already caught the full attention of the crowd.
Once he began singing, his voice completely drew in the crowd as they could honestly feel the power he put into his words. While Xinyan's performance was truly magnificent, Ayato's own rock seemed to be a bit different compared to hers, but it was nonetheless amazing.
As the song continued, the crowd had never once turned their eyes away, it was more like they couldn't. Something about his performance made it impossible for them to turn away, and even Xinyan was frozen still in shock at the talent she was seeing, but soon recovered and began rocking to the beat as well.
To be honest, Ayato did find it a bit difficult to sing the song since there were two singers, in fact, quite a number of Skillet's songs had two singers. With it only being him singing, he had to compensate for that by trying his best to fill in both roles as well as he could.
Of course, there were a few certain individuals that seemed to be staring at him with more emotion then others. First off, Keqing was staring with awe and surprise, she knew that he was a fan of this type of music, but she didn't expect him to be able to play it so well.
The next individuals were actually the Millelith that he had trained, at least the ones that seemed to be fans of Xinyan's performances. They had only seen his completely serious and also kind side when it came to training them, but seeing him act so relaxed and free was astonishing.
Finally, a certain young girl who was quite the major fan of Xinyan and this form of music overall was also enjoying the show to the fullest. She had become highly interested when she first saw Xinyan perform, and the performance that the Jiù Shì Zhǔ was putting on was not at all inferior.
Back with Ayato, as he continued playing, he honestly felt a bit of weight lift off his shoulders. These past few days have just been full of concern regarding getting stronger, and with all of his new duties as part of the Liyue Qixing, he has a huge amount of responsibility on his shoulders.
Not only that, he wasn't sure if or when another event like the Magician the first time around would happen again, and his focus had been mainly on getting as strong as he possibly could in the event that such a phenomenon happens again.
However, for now, he truly did cherish this moment.
.
.
.
『Current Personas』
● Dagda - [Arcana: The Fool] [Level: 22] [Inherit: Curse] [Resist: Fire, Ice, Electric, Wind] [Weak: Bless] [Strength: 33] [Magic: 22] [Endurance: 15] [Agility: 17] [Luck: 13] [Skills: ⓘ] 🟢
● Pixie - [Arcana: The Lovers] [Level: 6] [Inherit: Electric] [Resist: Electric, Bless] [Weak: Gun, Ice, Curse] [Strength: 2] [Magic: 8] [Endurance: 5] [Agility: 4] [Luck: 6] [Skills: ⓘ] 🟢
● Jack Frost - [Arcana: The Magician] [Level: 20] [Inherit: Ice] [Block: Ice] [Weak: Fire] [Strength: 8] [Magic: 25] [Endurance: 13] [Agility: 14] [Luck: 8] [Skills: ⓘ] 🟢
● High Pixie - [Arcana: The Priestess] [Level: 18] [Inherit: Ice] [Block: Ice] [Weak: Wind] [Strength: 6] [Magic: 17] [Endurance: 8] [Agility: 4] [Luck: 10] [Skills: ⓘ] 🟢
● Sati - [Arcana: The Magician] [Leve: 24] [Inherit: Fire] [Block: Fire] [Weak: Ice] [Strength: 12] [Magic: 27] [Endurance: 13] [Agility: 16] [Luck: 15] [Skills: ⓘ] 🟢
● Agathion - [Arcana: The Magician] [Leve: 3] [Inherit: Electric] [Resist: Gun, Electric] [Weak: Wind] [Strength: 3] [Magic: 4] [Endurance: 5] [Agility: 7] [Luck: 3] [Skills: ⓘ] 🟢
● Orobas - [Arcana: The Magician] [Leve: 8] [Inherit: Fire] [Resist: Fire] [Weak: Ice] [Strength: 4] [Magic: 10] [Endurance: 6] [Agility: 10] [Luck: 6] [Skills: ⓘ] 🟢
● Nekomata - [Arcana: The Magician] [Leve: 5] [Inherit: Fire] [Resist: Fire] [Strength: 4] [Magic: 6] [Endurance: 5] [Agility: 3] [Luck: 4] [Skills: ⓘ] 🟢
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