The Stringless Puppet 1 (Patreon)

The Stringless Puppet (Genshin Impact, Wanderer/Scaramouche!SI)

Inazuma. It was 400 years before the start of the ‘Game’. Roughly-speaking.

I am not sure how I ended up here, or why, or what irony I was blessed and cursed with as I was starting from ‘almost’ the beginning. I remember my previous life, yet I remember the moment I was ‘reborn’.

I wept.

A moment that was akin to a child showing their liveliness. A moment that should be soothing to many as life was accomplished, but one that actually stirred and disturbed to my ‘creator’.

The Raiden Shogun, the Kagemusha of the previous Electro Archon now forced into the role of her long-deceased twin sister- Makoto. She was terrified, and who wouldn’t? She created life without needing it. She needed a puppet, and made a Pinocchio.

But where Geppetto would have loved a boy, I was cast aside as a forgettable creation. The original puppet would have called it a ‘Betrayal’, but I saw it for what it was.

The Puppet was a concept of an idea. A ‘possibility’, a ‘maybe’. Ei was in need of a solution for her erosion- the fear of dying was amplified by the passing of her sister, coupled with the fact that the Shogunate was born through the idea of Eternity: the irony of a ruler perishing in the Land of Eternity felt like a silly and cheap joke.

But no one laughed at this sort of ‘what if’.

No, I focused more on what I had to do. I could hardly use anything to assist myself. Ei had purposely limited my body- the divine energy residing within me having been restrained to just give me a lengthy lifespan.

Eternal? No, everything falls to erosion. Even someone- no, something like me. The Shakkei Pavillon was where I was left. I felt like William Afton after being Springtrapped. And, just like him, I always come back. I didn’t suffer from hunger, or thirst. I was devoid of needs beyond a need to sleep to ‘restore’ my energy.

It didn’t take too long for ‘first contact’ to be made with the locals. Explorers trying to expand business in Tatarasuna Island had found the rotting Pavillon, and the man that took me in, the one I decided to keep as a loyal friend, was Katsuragi, the Yoriko to Mikoshi Nagamasa. The man was sympathetic to my struggle, and gave me a chance to not be troubled by the other locals by calling me Kabukimono (Wandering Eccentric).

I would have liked to add my own input, but Japanese was not exactly my strength in terms of creative names that wouldn’t raise some eyebrows. No, I was more concerned with what I was supposed to do after this point.

I could remember Tatarasuna Mystery- I had played Genshin Impact extensively to know this was a major point despite its limited reach. People would die due to a dark plot, revenge would be led by misunderstandings, and I was supposed to be in the middle of this.

Not as a cause, but as a survivor.

Despite my puppet-like face, mannerism and overall aloof pessimism, I was a man with a plan to save this place. And I knew I had to work around some factors that could easily screw idealists, but not pragmatic bastards such as myself.

I was able to learn with ease the way of iron-forging. Same for steel-forging, but I was stopped from practicing the production of Jade Steel due to the complex method behind it. As I was taught how it unfolded, I could see why it was such an impressive thing.

Impressive and dumb.

The Steel produced was actually stronger than normal Steel, I would say that it was some incredible shit, but the expenses and the risks would have put any smart capitalist away from investing in this sort of shit.

Jade Steel’s quality was just not worth the nuclear-tier dangers behind the use of the Crystal Marrows. But while I had been tempted to just call this out and try to use my ‘influence’ brought by the pin my ‘mother’ gave me before letting me be, I knew that I had to do something far more concrete- I had to show those greedy investors that there is better than this.

My saving grace as a puppet was my impressive memory- I could fucking remember everything of my past life with absurd precision. It was like having a book always available to me, with sticky notes telling me where my knowledge came from.

I had a few ‘trips down memory lane’ and I found all I needed about what I had to accomplish for this to work as intended. It was going to take a while to get the resources, but I finished my ‘renovation plan for the Mikage Furnace’ within a month of starting the effort.

The issue was any chance to get the resources I needed for my experimentation. I knew already after being introduced to Mikoshi Nagamasa that the man had his hands tied- and it had been the case since his mother, Chiyo, had betrayed the Shogun during the Cataclysm.

So, rather than just waste paper and ink in trying to use my position, I just decided to do something rather risky since the war between the Shogunate and the Resistance was still hot and ongoing:

Take a boat, rely on a Dull Sword, and hope to make progress in finding what I need on my own.

—------d-d-d-d—--

Niwa Hisahide was sure that Kabukimono was up to something interesting.

As much as many others would say the same after roughly a year of having had this peculiar individual around, the plans that he showed him before departing on multiple months-long trips beyond Tatarasuna had left Hisahide in a giddy mood as he was told that his long-standing friend had made another return- the last return from his last trip for this effort.

Many were curious to see what manner of resource he managed to acquire, and the several containers that Kabukimono carried to Hisahide’s armory were indeed full to the brim with a black substance. Curiosity had him by the lips-

“What is it now?”

“Rubber,” The eccentric wanderer replied effortlessly, yet left the Armory Officer confused.

“Ru…bber?”

“It’s a substance that can be molded as a special electric isolant. It can act as a protective layer to contain the electric emissions of the Furnace,” Kabukimono proved himself ready for this very perplexity. “And wires. Lots of wires to get electricity around and at an affordable distance from others.”

Hisahide nodded, deciding it was best to limit the questions and see the practical use of what his short friend was up to. He had been aware that Kabukimono was far more than a mere puppet, yet the pessimistic take adopted by him made Hisahide sad on how easily the peculiar boy reacted to his own nature.

It was upset he felt in his voice, but also reason and understanding that mellowed the dreadful awareness of his own presence. To Hisahide, it was quite the tragic outlook towards life- but Kabukimono made it clear that any effort to ‘uplift his existence’ would only cause more trouble than not.

Another year would pass by as each month saw impressive progress implemented with various alternative methods to generate energy to the Mikage Furnace. The first one involved the energy of the sun- the heat produced by the sun was passed through a rudimentary ‘battery/generator’ that then converted it in a purer stable form of energy that was fueled to the Furnace.

It would have been the best option if not for the fact that constant cloudy days and rains rendered the chance of perpetually exploiting that form of energy. Hisahide thought that would have been a major failure that would have crushed Kabukimono but…

This was just the beginning.

The entire year was all about other viable options. The ‘wind turbines’ were also reliable, but the storms tended to bring those down from time to time, making those a risky investment. Next up was an effort to use ‘watermills’, but those failed to generate the needed energy output.

The last effort was also the most ‘expensive’ in terms of the resources employed by Kabukimono but the one that also succeeded in this effort.The ‘Geothermal’ Generators, which still relied on water to produce hot steam to push the engine to produce electricity, were able to safely produce the needed output without demanding the usage of Crystal Marrow.

Before completing this project, Hisahide had inquired Kabukimono on why he found the use of such material so ‘wrong’, thinking it was just about the tension it generated with the Resistance. But the response from the ‘puppet’ was quite peculiar and respectable on the ground of rational thoughts.

“The Crystal Marrow is not a reliable fuel. It sure allows for energy output to be at acceptable levels, if not more, but this is within the hope that the seals containing the worst of the Tatarigami are preserved. Since we are in a war which involves some saboteurs on both sides, there are groups that are trying to crash the stability of other countries, and it’s extremely poisonous to people due to it being Orobashi’s remaining body filled with malice, I don’t need to stress too much that the Crystal Marrow is not worth the rewards.”

Hisahide wrote it all down that night, saving that pearl of wisdom for when he was interrogated by the representative of the Tenryou Commission when he asked for answers in regard to the latest report deeming Crystal Marrow no longer needed for the process. He had been ready for this confrontation and he thought that he had done everything without messing not even a spot.

What the representative purposely didn’t mention as his superiors deemed it too dangerous of an option to indulge about for the time being, was the mention of Kabukimono.

So, much to his surprise, he woke up a few days after this intense meeting to find out the boy glaring heatedly at one of the walls in the armory. When asked why he was behaving like this after ‘proving himself a genius’, Kabukimono provided Hisahide with a letter that he had received earlier that morning.

The Raiden Shogun intended to praise him personally for his great contributions to Tatarasuna Island.

—-------d-d-d-d—------

AN

You may think it’s ‘Mom’ calling to coddle her son for doing a good job, but I wish to remind you all that the Raiden Shogun is now the second puppet- it’s Scara’s own imouto!

Next time, Scara bullies Raiden-chan for trying to be a big girl against her aniki. Also, Yae Miko may get caught in the crossfire of bullies, she has a big glaring ‘weak spot’ that Scara knows through lingering memories left by Ei and… it’s going to be glorious.