บท 112: You lost big time

A new day arrived, and the morning sun greeted the city of Mondstadt

"Like I said traveller hic" a drunk Barbatos was walking near the entrance of Mondstadt, accompanied by Lumine who looked at the drunk Archon beside her. "I wanted to fee-"

"Please, stop" Lumine said covering Paion's ears. "We don't need to know more about that".

"Hey!" Paimon screamed in indignation. "I do!"

"I don't" said a cold voice.

Before Lumine could react, a few Agents were pinning her to the ground, while Barbatos wondered why he had 10 fingers in a single hand. Didn't that mean he now had 2 dicks too?

"I waited 20 years" said Signora, introducing her hand with a strange glove into Barbatos' back, making his eyes open wide. "And I finally got the Gnosis".

"Leave him" Lumine shouted and tried to break free, but there was nothing she could do.

Paimon looked nervously at everyone, being useless. As always.

"And yet" Signora spoke with a frown. "I still think I lost this week".

"Heh" Barbatos recovered somewhat from his drunken state after sensing the Gnosis leave him and scoffed. "It was you who pissed Kenshin off? Then indeed, even with the Gnosis, you have lost. And big at that".

Signora's scowl intensified, and kicked Venti in the belly, sending him flying for a few meters.

"I already know" she said with gritted teeth. "At least I have the Gnosis".

"Are you sure?" an even colder voice appeared, and a hand touched the back of Sigora's neck, making her eyes open wide in surprise, and apprehension.

"Kenshin?" Barbatos looked astonished at Kenshin appearing from thin air. "Are you copying me?"

"If only" Kenshin said, not looking away from the back of Signora's head. "I sensed you 2 wandering and this scum coming for you, so I waited here in my Plane. I waited for a while and when I thought you would be talking or at least fighting I would appear. But his went even better than expected".

"Tehe" Barbatos stuck out his tongue but was concerned about Kenshin. He had never seen him this angry before.

Lumine looked at the scene agape, there were too many things happening at the same time.

"What do you want?" Signora felt that Kenshin's anger had only intensified during the night, and his hand on the back of her neck meant that her soul was in his hands now.

"The Gnosis" said Kenshin curtly. "Leave it in the ground".

Signora was an arrogant person, but even she knew when was she outmatched.

She didn't fear a battle, but that's it. With Kenshin, in the position they were in right now, there was no battle to be had.

"I..." she felt reluctant to hand over the Gnosis. She had been waiting in this town that held so many bad memories for her for a total of 20 years to retrieve the Gnosis in her hand. And now she was going to need to hand it over, just when she thought she had won.

"You hand it or I get it, choose" Kenshin only wanted the Gnosis, not to engage in a negotiation.

"Dammit!" Signora shouted, and the Gnosis touched the soft grass, under the watchful look of Barbatos.

"You, white thing" Kenshin spoke without looking away from Signora. "Put it in my hand".

"I'm not-! Uhh, okay" Paimon received a look from Kenshin, and decided to comply.

She took the Gnosis, and with some effort raised it enough for Kenshin to grab it.

"This is too disgusting" muttered Kenshin, sensing the torn soul fragment in his hand. Using his soul he created a film over the fragment, effectively sealing it.

Of course, souls were not a material thing so nothing appeared over the Gnosis, but as the fragment inside was sealed, it stopped shining.

"Take it back" Signora was surprised hearing that, but eager to put a stretched hand to her back.

She could try to freeze him using this same hand, but she had read Kenshin's book about souls. She knew that the moment she thought of attacking him, Kenshin would sense it and turn her into a vegetable if she was lucky.

Kenshin put the Gnosis on her hand and pushed her forward, making some space between them.

"What did you do!?" asked a horrified Signora seeing that the Gnosis was now dull. She remembered Kenshin's threat of destroying them, and feared that in his anger, he did exactly that.

"Seal it" Kenshin's words reassured Signora that the worst didn't happen. "Only I can break the seal as it only answers to my soul and no one else's".

Signora sighed, at least they had an option now.

"What do you want?" Signora asked with a conflicted gaze. She opposed this plan from the start, so why was she now reaping the results? "Let me remind you that I don't have the right to make a decision".

"It's easy" Kenshin said looking directly at Signora's pale eyes. "When I get my parents back, I remove the seal. If I don't get my parents back, I don't remove the seal".

"Your parents?" asked Barbatos with a frown, while Lumine looked worriedly at Kenshin. She knew how hard was to lose a family member, and Kenshin had lost 2 at the hands of these guys.

"And let me tell you this" Kenshin said with an even colder voice. "Even if you return them, I will only remove the seal, a fragment of my soul is still there. Should you even try doing this shit again, I will detonate it. Same if my parents are not perfectly fine when they arrive here. Same if you even think of taking a step into Inazuma".

Signora gritted her teeth feeling humiliated by the situation, but she knew when to fold.

"I underst-"

"You don't" interrupted Kenshin. "Because I'm not done speaking".

Signora looked even more angry, but she understood Kenshin's situation. The ones she was angry with were the ones who thought of this plan.

"This is the only chance your country has" warned Kenshin. "If I suspect, and only suspect, that you are playing something I don't like, I will start detonating Gnoses".

"Gnoses?" asked a worried Signora.

"Yes" said Kenshin without looking away. "Because every single Gnosis I touch will have a bomb attached to it. Maybe that teaches your people to put their noses where they belong, in each other's asses. Now send my parents back".

Kenshin entered Mondstadt, and the now free Lumine, a sober Barbatos and a nervous Paimon followed him, leaving a fuming Signora and the Agents back.

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A week later, in Zapolyarny Palace.

Signora, despite her pale complexion, wore a red face from anger walking towards the meeting room.

BLAM!

She opened the door not minding the looks she was receiving.

"Signora" the grave voice of Pierro caught her attention, and she glared at him. "Did you retrieve the Anemo Gnosis?".

"I don't know" scoffed Signora, throwing him the dull Gnosis over the table. "You tell me if I did".

"Why is it dull?" asked Pulcchinela in his irritating high-pitched voice.

"Maybe something is affecting its insides" commented Dottore inspecting the Gnosis with a critical look. He knew a lot more than what just he said, but he had an idea of who could have done it.

Pierro thought the same, and looked at Signora, waiting for an explanation.

"Kenshin sealed it" Signora sharply said.

"Give it to me" The Tsaritsa, having read his book years ago thought that maybe she could sense the seal. If Kenshin didn't want the seal removed, she would be unable to do it, but maybe there was a message like last time.

But she couldn't even penetrate the seal to see what was beyond it. She couldn't see souls, but when she tried invoking the Gnosis' power, it didn't even respond.

"He said that the seal wouldn't disappear until he got his parents back" explained Signora. "I warned you all that forcing him like this was not a good idea, and you still decided to go on with this. Now he is royally pissed with us".

"And yet, we got a Gnosis" pointed out Tartaglia. "It's only a matter of time before we can get him to unseal it".

"You are stupid" Signora scoffed making Tartaglia frown. "Even after all this, you still underestimate him. His first option was to destroy the Gnosis itself".

Even the Tsaritsa looked alarmed at that. The Gnoses were fragments of a Descender, something no one should be able to destroy, but again, Kenshin was that strong with souls.

"And even if he unseals the Gnosis" Signora continued. "He told me that a fragment of his soul would remain there, and he would detonate it should we move against him".

"Can he do that?" asked Tartaglia looking at Arlecchino.

"How would I know?" Arlecchino replied in a calm voice.

"Release his parents then" The Tsaritsa didn't even know they had captured his parents. She said that she wanted Kenshin here, and the Harbingers would make that a reality.

"But the problem still remains" pointed out Pierro. "We can't have a knife to our throat".

Everyone looked at Arlecchino, who calmly replied.

"Why are you looking at me?" despite her calm voice, Arlecchino felt bitter knowing that these people's plans had cost her a lot. "Every goodwill I may had with him disappeared the moment you carried this out".

"And that's not all" added Signora with a dark face. "He is probably going to do the same with every Gnosis he can get his hands on. And the Geo Gnosis is almost in his hands considering his friendship with Rex Lapis".

"Should we eliminate him at this point?" said Tartaglia with a frown. "We are dancing in his hands, the moment he was able to threaten us with the Gnosis is the moment he turned into a liability. I get that the plan will go smoother if he is with us, but we were ready to execute it even before he appeared right? It's not like he is a must".

The Tsaritsa opened her mouth to disallow everyone from harming Kenshin, but Signora spoke again.

"And who can do that?" she scoffed. "We haven't seen him in 2 years, we don't need anything from Inazuma after all, but he has grown a lot stronger. He killed 3 dozen of Operatives, our elites, in 10 seconds. And the scene was not beautiful".

"He may have something similar to the Plane of Euthymia" mused Pierro. "And with his ability over souls, he may be extremely strong there".

"Hah!" Tartaglia wore an excited smile. "Sound like a perfect opponent".

"Dumbass" said Signora with a smirk. "Do you see anyone excited here?".

Tartaglia looked around and saw the rest of the Harbingers wear worried faces, except for Arlecchino's calm one and Columbina's curious one. And Dottore's frenzy one of course

"You are the youngest here" continued Signora with a disdainful smirk. "And there is much you don't know, but Kenshin may be as strong as an Archon inside a soul. And honestly, from that book, the only reason he is not outright invincible is because of his scruples. The same ones he may decide to ignore if we piss him off again!" she concluded hitting the table with both hands.

"This goes even further" said Pantalone with a frown. "It means that we need his approval to proceed".

"What? Why?" Tartaglia didn't like how a guy his age was rendering all of these monsters powerless without even fighting.

"Because he can stop our plan the exact same moment he wants to" patiently explained Pantalone. "He can seal the Gnosis again, or stop the final step, or even detonate them the moment he thinks our plan is harmful. Or even if he is pissed".

"But then we will focus on him" argued Tartaglia. "He knows that the moment he loses this card is the moment his country will disappear".

"He knows Morax, Barbatos and Beelzebub" counted Signora. "Even if we win, we will lose a lot of our strength".

"It doesn't even matter" replied Arlecchino with a calm face. "Even if we raze his country to the ground, we will have already lost".

"So what do we do then? Send him another honey trap?" asked a frustrated Tartaglia.

"The last one was useless after all" pointed out Scaramouche, always ready for some beef.

"This useless one got us the Electro Gnosis" replied calmly Arlecchino. "But I understand that you are feeling lonely after not being able to see your mommy again".

"You bit-"

"Enough" even despite his low voice, Pierro was able to make everything silent with a single voice. "We will focus on the other Gnoses first and try to avoid Kenshin coming into contact with them. Even if we can't do that with the Geo Gnosis, we still need it so it will be our next target".

"Has my request been approved?" suddenly asked Dottore.

"Yes" was the reply that Pierro gave him.

After everyone left, only the Tsaritsa and Pierro were left in the room.

"Pierro" the cold voice of the Cryo Archon sounded in the silent room. "If Kenshin is not going to join us, or at least allow us to proceed with our plan, eliminate him".

Pierro nodded, with the confidence of one who had the absolute certainty that if things came to a fight, he would win.

He was the First Harbinger.

And the strongest one.