carefully planned return

The final vessel claimed the remaining berth with deliberate spectacle.

It was not the largest ship in absolute size, yet every line of its decoration and the deliberate elegance of its fittings made the others look almost plain by comparison. Three women stepped down the gangplank without hurry.

Kokomi came first, graceful and already familiar, the same open, lightly framed attire she had favored since the reform of Inazuma. Behind her walked Ayaka and a third woman Aether did not immediately place — Mizuki — both of them dressed in the same absurdly revealing style that had become ordinary in their nation since Ei’s change of heart. Soft fabrics and strategic cutouts left almost nothing to chance; the reformed culture of Inazuma was on full, unapologetic display.

(https://im.ge/i/QMnwKCF) (https://im.ge/i/QMnXLVy) (https://im.ge/i/QMnXhrS)
(artist: miyu)

Aether offered the three of them a polite welcome, already cataloguing another set of arrivals and assuming the Inazuman contingent was complete.

A flicker of movement at the edge of his vision made him pause.

soft pink tails, just for a moment, disappearing behind a stack of crates further up on the ship.

He almost dismissed it as a trick of the light.

Yae Miko waited until every formal greeting had finished and the attention of the growing crowd had begun to settle. Only then did she step into the open, tails fanning in slow, theatrical arcs, the same knowing smile she had worn the day she helped rewrite an Archon still firmly in place. She had timed her entrance with characteristic precision — last, unhurried, and with the entire beach as her stage.

(https://im.ge/i/QMnX9MF)
(artist: Miyu)

She descended the gangplank with deliberate, unhurried steps, each one measured to draw the eye. A light folding fan already hid the lower half of her face, leaving only those sharp, amused eyes visible — eyes that carried the clear curve of a smile the rest of her mouth did not need to show. The rest of the beach, the newly arrived contingents, even the residual sound of Barbara still trying to soothe Ningguang’s endlessly climaxing body, seemed to fade into background noise as she closed the distance.

She stopped a comfortable pace away from Aether and tilted her head, the fan shifting just enough to suggest rather than reveal.

“My, my. The little Traveler who once needed every scrap of guidance has certainly… expanded his repertoire.”
Her voice stayed light, conversational, yet every syllable carried the familiar layered amusement. “I leave you alone for a few nations and you return with a title, a following, and a reputation that reaches even the quiet corners of the Grand Narukami Shrine.” ”One might almost think your cultivation had been fated, as if orchestrated”

She did not claim credit outright. She never needed to. The implication hung in the air with perfect clarity, and part of Aether — the part that still remembered the long, reality-bending weeks inside Ei’s plane — quietly suspected she was not entirely wrong.

Yae’s eyes dragged over him once, slow and thorough, the look of a predator that had already decided the meal was worth the wait. A cold trickle slid down his spine at the open hunger in that gaze. It was not fear that answered it. The white flames under his skin flickered once in clean, answering interest. Excitement, sharp and immediate, settled low in his gut.

(https://im.ge/i/QMnwcXJ)
(artist: eisenbricher195)