"Kiana!" Raiden i whipped her head around, letting out a sharp, hysterical shriek. "I didn't give birth to her!"
—Hahahaha!!!
Watching the scene unfold, Raiden Ei struggled to keep a straight face. She was practically bursting, her inner self rolling on the floor in fits of laughter.
"Alright, alright, that's enough." Hiko sighed, pressing a hand to her forehead in exasperation as she surveyed the chaos. She forcibly cald the room down before turning her gaze toward Raiden i. "Now, i, tell us exactly what's going on here."
"I... I don't know either." i shook her head, looking at Raiden Ei with eyes full of distress and confusion. "I just woke up this morning and there she was..."
Well, of course.
Raiden Ei stood there with a detached expression, her posture regal and upright.
The mont I crossed over and beca Raiden Ei, I tracked down St. Freya Academy. I spent all night slipping past security just so I could stand by your bed and watch over you in silence.
And I spent the whole night admiring your sleeping face...
Wait...
It suddenly dawned on Ei. Was that... a bit creepy?
"Is that so?" Hiko turned her attention to Ei, her golden eyes sharp with suspicion. "In that case, why don't you tell your na, who you are, and why you're here."
"I am the Raiden Shogun." Ei's gaze swept over the room with cold indifference, her voice solemn.
"This body is a puppet, crafted by the ruler of Inazuma, Beelzebul, using her own form as the dium. It was created to resist erosion and to protect Inazuma for eternity."
"Inazuma?" Hiko's brow furrowed at the na. "Where is Inazuma? And you're saying... you're a puppet? Made from soone else's body?"
"You ask too many questions."
Ei stared at Hiko, her brow slightly pinched, though internally she was so giddy she wanted to do victory rolls on the floor.
"However... this world does not seem to be Inazuma, nor is it Teyvat." Ei turned toward the window, a hint of genuine confusion flickering in her violet eyes.
"And who is this Beelzebul? I'm not her. You... you must have mistaken for her," i said, stepping forward to look at Ei with a questioning gaze.
Ei turned back to her, her eyes filled with unwavering conviction. "No. You are Beelzebul, my mother. I can feel the resonance between your soul and my physical form."
"But..." i took a deep breath, fighting to stay composed. "I have absolutely no mory of... ever making you."
"Besides, there is no country nad Inazuma in this world," Hiko added. "And definitely no Teyvat."
"Bronya believes..."
Bronya finally spoke up, her voice cool and analytical. "You... might not be from our world."
"Huh? Not from our world?" Kiana blurted out, stunned. "Bronya, what kind of nonsense are you talking about?"
But then, Kiana's expression turned uncharacteristically serious. She squinted at Ei, theorizing, "But if you really aren't from here, but from another world... and you really were born from i..."
"I DID NOT GIVE BIRTH TO HER!!!"
i's indignant scream nearly blew the roof off the building.
"Another world?" Ei frowned, her eyes clouded with thought. "If that is the case, then this situation is not so strange. Even if you are the 'Mother' of another world, you are still the one I serve. Since you used your own body as material to grant life and purpose, that fact remains beyond doubt."
As she spoke, Ei's gaze was so earnest and steadfast it seed as though she had anchored her entire existence to that single truth.
"..."
i's cheeks flushed a deeper shade of crimson. Seeing her like this, Ei felt that even if she died right now, the price of her "isekai" ticket would have been well worth it!
"Wait, wait, wait!"
Hiko raised a hand, rubbing her temples as she tried to untangle the logic.
"So you're saying you're a puppet made by the i of another world, using her own body? And that's why you call our i 'Mother'?"
"That is so."
"But... even if our i isn't the one from your world?"
"Yes." Ei nodded silently, her gaze sharp and resolute. "For the value and aning of this body is to carry out the will of Inazuma's ruler, even if this form is currently incomplete."
"Then... what about the other i? If she used her body to make you, where is she now?"
"...Tenshukaku," Ei said after a mont of silence. "Just monts ago, I was ant to rge with Mother, who had cast aside her physical form. I was to rule Inazuma in her stead, while she entered the Plane of Euthymia to combat Erosion. But in a flash, I found myself here."
"rge?" A chill ran down i's spine at the thought.
"And what the heck is 'erosion'?" Kiana asked, looking utterly lost.
As the questioning continued, Ei gradually revealed the details of Teyvat, Inazuma, and the Archons.
Hearing these stories, i and the others were left in a state of absolute shock.
anwhile, Ei felt a sense of pure, cathartic relief—as if she'd just stepped out of a sauna and downed a massive gulp of ice-cold cola.
"So... you don't know why you're here, and you don't know how to get back. Is that right?"
Hiko rubbed her forehead, her headache worsening. "What a ss... things are chaotic enough in our world, and now we've got a parallel-world i popping up?"
"She is not lying..."
Bronya spoke up seriously from the side. "Furthermore, the power within her body does not match any energy signature currently in Bronya's system records."
"Yeah." Hiko nodded, looking at the silent Ei with a hint of helplessness. "Besides... Ai-chan is screaming her head off over the comms... saying there's an energy source in St. Freya equivalent to a nuclear warhead."
"..." Ei listened to them in silence. Her cold, detached deanor made it look as though their conversation had absolutely nothing to do with her.
"So... what do you plan to do now?" Hiko asked, her tone slightly testing. After all, she didn't want a puppet made from the body of a god running amok in her academy.
"I shall fulfill my duty."
Ei turned her gaze toward i with absolute certainty.
i imdiately took a frantic step back, shaking her head even more vigorously. "I am not Beelzebul! So, I am definitely not rging with you!"
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