Souls in Teyvat

Keith woke up in the comfortable bed in his room, but much to his despair, it was still dark outside the big window showing the big plaza, and probably the only one, in the whole Belobog.

'Dammit, have to wait again' thought Keith with a sigh.

Sometimes, having such a high-spec body was a burden, as the world seemed to start moving after the sun appeared.

What could he do with the approximately 3 hours left until the rest woke up?

Read? There was little to read here, and he had just woken up, he had to burn some energy.

Return to the egg and the chicken? Obviously not, he had already solved that perfectly.

What did he have left to do? Wander around the silent and dark town again?

…....

Probably.

So with a sigh, he stood up from his bed, and changed into his comfortable clothes, wondering if pyjamas being this comfy was a bad thing.

It only made waking up and leaving the bed even harder, didn't it?

He left his room, being cautious of not making any noise, and turned around to leave.

"...."

"...."

And yet, he found a pair of golden eyes in front of him, looking at him with surprise.

Stelle and Keith, sleeping in neighbouring rooms, looked at each other with their hands still in the knob of their doors.

And they both shrugged.

-------------------------------------------------------

"I have a special body, so I need to sleep way less than anyone else, what was your reason for waking up this early?" asked Keith, feeling the cold wind of the night in his skin.

Even if the sensation he thought should accompany it didn't arrive, he could sense temperature but his body wouldn't shiver.

"I didn't sleep at all" replied Stelle, making Keith realize that indeed, the normally energetic girl looked quite sleepy. "There was a magical toilet that took me to the origin of the universe."

"I see you got affected by that radioactive diaper" replied Keith, but Stelle only sighed, too tired to explain how wondrous that toilet trip had been. "Will you be alright? We were supposed to walk a lot today, and find that abominable Stellaron."

"Probably" nodded Stelle, holding back a yawn that threatened to escape her mouth. "You will have to carry me otherwise."

"Maybe" conceded Keith, knowing that he was the physically strongest one out of the group. "I might need to carry March too, she is too skinny and won't be able to last for long."

"I take priority" replied Stelle with a pointed look. "I'm the star, remember?"

"Something like that" replied Keith with a shrug. "Oh, look who's here."

A tall man, with a straight face unaffected by the early hours of the morning, was walking towards the building the Supreme Guardian ruled Belobog from.

"Hey, Mister Captain" greeted Keith raising his hand, catching Guepard's attention. "What are you doing this early? Even monsters sleep."

"Preparing everything for the day" replied Guepard after greeting them with a slight nod.

"Are you paid for these hours of work?" inquired Stelle curiously.

"The Landau Family will always serve Belobog, there is no nee-"

"So you aren't being paid" interrupted Stelle, who along with her hours of sleep her inhibitions had also left her. "Which in turn means you are being exploited."

"Your sleep-deprivation state hasn't changed at all" sighed Keith, looking at Guepard. "We won't interrupt you then, I guess today will be extra busy if you or your team will come with us to the Stellaron."

"If you are talking about the artefact supposedly creating this storm, yes" replied Guepard with a nod. "My team will guide you there and protect you from monsters."

"Please, we can beat your as-"

"Thanks for the dedication" said Keith, interrupting Stelle. "Well, we will leave you to your thing. Just try to enjoy your job, you might be jobless in a few hours."

"If an army is not needed, it only means there is no war to wage" replied Guepard with a small smile, leaving after a brief nod.

Keith and Stelle looked him leave, and kept walking around the town, making time for everything to start.

"You could have returned to your bed instead of coming out" said Keith, looking at Stelle's dull expression, a sign that she might fall asleep even while standing. "You tend to get violent when you haven't slept enough."

"Sleeping now would do more harm than good" replied Stelle a bit drowsily. "And how do you know what I look like when I don't sleep enough?"

"You banged my head against a wall, only because the wrong neurons pushed you to check if I was more stubborn than a wall" grumbled Keith, remembering the tragic episode.

"That doesn't make any sense" commented Stelle, her head swaying as she lost control of it, her sleep lulling her into a comfortable sleep even in the middle of the town.

"In your head, it did"

"What was the result?" asked Stelle curiously. "Your body is too tough for a wall to resist."

"Not if the wall is a 10-meter-thick plate of pure steel" replied darkly Keith, making Stelle look at him with surprise.

"....well, I don't remember it, ergo, it wasn't me" said Stelle, looking at the sky, covered by clouds and only letting some faint moonlight pass through.

"Regrettably, I have to agree" nodded Keith, who had done something similar with his 'future selves' taking all the blame.

'Speaking of which, I wasn't dragged to that place again after that Stellaron thing, I wonder if it made something change' mused Keith, not having seen that little girl for a long while. 'Well, what happens will happen, she seemed to have fine people over there.'

BANG

Keith was taken out of his thoughts when a loud sound came just from his side, only to see Stelle with a confused expression and a red forehead.

Just in front of a lamppost.

"Did you-"

"No" replied Stelle instantly.

"If you say so" shrugged Keith. "Just so you know, I fell asleep mid-flight so I missed the moment to jump with my parachute. I ended up stranded on a planet where 2 armies of carnivorous and seemingly racist plants were at war with each other."

"....that sounds amazing" said Stelle, wondering what it would have been like. "What happened?"

"That one side evolved faster than the other, until one side won by eliminating all opposition" revealed Keith. "My friends came to pick me up, even if they were royally pissed at me, but by the time I left another plant had mutated, and had started its own army. I wonder if they are still going at it."

"That sounds cool" muttered Stelle, while her eyes started to close against her will.

Keith only raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

Not even when...

BANG

Once again, Stelle found herself staring at a lamppost, but this time Keith was already looking at her.

"I'm too tired to argue" mumbled Stelle. "Maybe I should have slept..."

"Too late now" replied Keith, having seen this same dilemma countless times with Silverwolf.

You believed you were fine, until you weren't, but by that time there was simply no time to get in the bed again, leaving you sleepy but unable to rest.

What a tragedy.

"Pick me up" demanded Stelle raising her arms.

"...." but Keith's blank stare told her what he thought of that.

"This is your chance to pick a beautiful girl up, why aren't you jumping in joy?" asked Stelle.

"...."

"You are a virgin for sure."

"Look who is talking" scoffed Keith. 'Wait a minute, that vicious woman didn't even reply to my confession!'

The infernal clock now had a new destination.

Kafka's brain.

"Was I single?" asked Stelle curiously.

"... did you think otherwise?" asked Keith, genuinely surprised. "Stelle, you are a girl who likes rummaging through trashcans. As much as your friends loved you, that is not a hobby you would like in a prospective lover."

"Why not?" asked Stelle with a frown. "There are people who care more about fictional girls than real ones, how is having innocent fun like searching for treasures any worse?"

"....you went directly to hell, didn't you?" asked an impressed Keith. "Well....you have a point, I guess. You only need to find someone who won't mind your 'hobby/addiction', I guess."

"It can't be that hard" commented Stelle with a shrug. "If they can't understand the magic in the first place, they were not worthy."

"You are turning delusional, your lack of sleep is probably making your neurons strangle each other to get the little resources you have" sighed Keith tiredly. "If it was that easy, you would have gotten someone a long time ago. Now that I think of it..."

"Oh, so there was someone after all?" asked Stelle, but just as those words left her mouth, she felt conflicted.

Was she fine knowing that she had been doing.... that, with a complete stranger she didn't even remember?

"Of course not" scoffed Keith, making Stelle sigh in relief. "But you didn't have many chances, I guess. We were a somewhat recluse group, chances to interact with members of the opposite sex were very rare, and they were temporary acquaintances at best."

"Why are you blaming me for being single then?" asked Stelle with a frown.

"You were the one to call me virgin to start with" argued Keith, matching Stelle's frown with one of his own.

"Well, you are one, right?" asked Stelle with a smirk, and continued before Keith could open his mouth to reply. "It's not an insult if it's a fact."

"I wonder if this is how March feels" muttered Keith, feeling for the first time the futility of talking with a literal wall, who twisted everything, even logic itself, to fit their wants.

And he swore to be a little kinder to the pink-haired girl, who was a little too gullible and naïve.

She wasn't stupid, but she lacked the malice necessary to detect someone messing with you.

'It's her fault, she is too perfect as a teasing target' thought Keith, but saw someone he didn't expect to see this soon.

"Hey, Mister Captain" but this time, the sleep-deprived Stelle was the one to greet the blonde man first.

And Guepard sighed, walking towards them again.

"How are preparations going?" asked Keith. "I would prefer not to starve again because the food we picked was not for humans."

"Did that happen?" asked a surprised Stelle.

"Well, I was in charge of buying food on a strange planet, I couldn't even talk the language, much less read" Keith defended himself while staring at Stelle's mocking smirk.

"Stelle, Keith" but Guepard's solemn voice caught their attention. "You are hereby detained for attempting to harm Belobog."

"".....""

"Please don't strug-"

"Wait, at least let me understand something" said Keith, with a brief nod. "I understand that people coming from 'the stars' is a bit suspicious, and that we might have nefarious purposes. In fact, we might not even be humans but the next evolution of the monsters that had been attacking this city for hundreds of years, aiming to cause chaos in the city from the inside and make humanity fall. I get that."

Guepard's eyes were wide open hearing Keith's words, but the purple-haired man continued.

"But when did we cause any harm?" asked Keith. "We even found that nuclear bomb in preparation. There are plenty of witnesses around the town, and we spent the whole afternoon talking with your sister. Lastly, the hotel has guards outside at all hours, they will be able to confirm we didn't leave at night, and you found us just after we left, we can check timetables."

"...."

"So, with such a detailed report on our activities, why are we being accused of harming this piss-poor city?" asked Keith, genuinely curious.

"You are making it worse" pointed Stelle, but she also looked curiously at Guepard.

"You might hav-"

"We haven't done anything" interrupted Keith with a firm shake of his head. "But that isn't the point. In fact, we might very well be planning something very, VERY bad for this city."

Guepard eyes hardened hearing that, but then remembered how utterly random Keith was.

"What's your point then?" asked Guepard, relieved that both Stelle and Keith didn't seem to want to run.

"My point is, even if we are planning something bad, how would you know?" asked Keith, making Stelle open her eyes in realization. "You can't read minds, you can't see the future. How the hell did you find enough proof that we were planning something bad?"

"So your point is that while you might indeed be plotting something, we have no proof?" asked Guepard with a blank expression.

"You can accuse anyone of murdering someone" explained Keith with a nod. "But proving it is another thing."

"You see, we have no problem if you blame us for harming this city" continued Stelle, having understood Keith's thought process. "But how would you know about it? We can be planning something, but we can't be apprehended for it, because you don't have confirmation."

"....." and as much as Guepard hated it, he was starting to see the point.

"Is having malicious thoughts a crime?" asked Keith with a pondering expression. "Are humans able to limit their own minds?"

"How are thoughts regulated, and who can apply laws to them?" continued Stelle, with an expression mirroring Keith's. "Who decided the punishment each thought deserves?"

"How are thoughts checked? Is a thought punishable by what they are, or by the context they are born into?"

"If that's the case, are people naturally violent criminals just by existing, even if they hold back their impulses but are unable to control their thoughts?"

"Enough" said Guepard coldly, feeling his mind twist in dangerous ways he was afraid of leaving side effects. "The Supreme Guardian has issued the order."

"Heh, of course she has" scoffed Stelle. "No one with that name can be anything but a dictator. Supreme Guardian, really?"

"Even more in this place, what are you being so ostentatious for?" added Keith, but looked at Guepard. "What do we need to do?"

"Come with me, this will be solved soon" said Guepard, relieved that both Stelle and Keith were complying.

He also felt that this situation was straight-up wrong, but the Supreme Guardian might have some information he lacked.

Hopefully, the misunderstanding will be solved soon.

"Okay, we know better than making things worse" nodded Keith, with Stelle imitating him. "Guide us then, no need to escalate things. There is also no place to run here."

"No one wants that" nodded Guepard, turning around.

Only to see Keith and Stelle's running backs, forcing an expressionless face on the normally calm man.