New Friend?

At Liyue Harbor, in a luxurious hotel room, Aleksei was sitting over a desk while completing some reports when the emerald-eyed Kevin entered the room.

"Anything new, Kevin?" Aleksei stopped his work turning toward Kevin, offering him to seat on the sofa.

"Yes" Kevin nodded and ignored the offering, preferring to continue standing up "Allen has started to move."

"Finally. It took him enough, close to two years" Aleksei nodded "But knowing him, he would have been more focused on swords and fights rather than actually obtaining influence over Inazuma." he sighed "So what had he done?"

"As Allen, he had increased his influence, joining the Tenryou Commission and climbing its ranks, becoming very close to one of the generals, Kujou Sara, all of it while keeping good relations with the Kamisato household."

"The bare minimum taking into account that he started with the Niwa name" Aleksei said bored "Go to the important, what he had done as a Fatui?"

"He had established contact with the Tenryou Commissioner, making a deal of cooperation with it." Kevin informed.

"Is their relation good or bad?"

"Neither" Kevin answered "It's confusing. Allen had kept his support hidden, keeping favors and threatening subtle."

"At least he had done that correctly" Aleksei hummed.

"The alliance between the Fatui and Kujou Takayuki had been solid, Alina's side had started supporting the Kujou clan economically and militarily while letting put more of her forces over the Inazuma's government." Kevin explained.

"So the Fatui are slowly gaining power on Inazuma, not bad" Aleksei nodded. "Anything else?"

"Allen had also make contact with Watatsumi Island while showing his face" Kevin reported.

"Mmm, Pantalone would not be happy about that. There was truly a need for it?" Aleksei asked.

"It seems that it was more of his own interest over the new Divine Priestess rather than for Watatsumi Island."

"Letting be moved by feelings and putting himself in danger, how naive" Aleksei sighed disappointedly "Has he accomplished anything at least?"

"For now, our interactions are at the bare minimum, none of our troops having infiltrated the island, but, low direct commerce had been started with it." Kevin informed.

"It's a good move" Kevin nodded "Don't you think so, Kevin?"

"I'm against. The cost and wins are against us" Kevin informed.

"You are right. The money that we can gain from them is completely depreciable, needing to carry and change routes for them would even make a loss of money from us. However, the important part is that he had created a new direct trade route, if something were to happen at Inazuma's usual routes, it could become quite useful." Kevin analyzed "Allen is preparing an enclosure of the region."

"Hahaha" Aleksei started laughing "Intelligent people really think alike. I was really planning to do the same thing, putting slowly my men in positions of power before directly contacting the commissioner and preparing an enclosure of the region to finally provoke a civil war where I will move in the shadows, winning from every side."

"Are you sure you should be happy about?" Kevin asked "The one investing on Allen is Alina, all his gains would go for her. If this continues like this, Alina would become the next Pantalone."

"Yeah, it's a pity that all the merits would go for Alina now as all of Allen's merits are using her resources and Allen's movements had made every one of my plans at Inazuma useless. I'll let her have Inazuma while I put more effort into Fontaine. In the end, the next Pantalone would be me, there's no other way."

"If you say so" Kevin nodded "One more thing," He said looking at the list in his hand "About your plan to start moving Tartaglia, shall we stop it?"

"Oh, that?" Aleksei made a thoughtful face. "There's really no need for it now that Allen is there. If his plans bear fruit, Tartaglia is bound to act for him... So what? Continue with it."

"But there's no need or gain from it. It might even complicate Allen's and Tartaglia's relationships." Kevin informed.

"That's precisely why. I've already decided to abandon Inazuma and not waste more resourses. So..." Aleksei grinned "Let's chaos fall over it. I want to see how Allen reacts to a new friend."

...

*Aaaaaa* Allen yawned as he woke up and cleaned his face. His plans were going well and all, but he was really becoming tired, going here and there for himself, negotiating... all of it while keeping himself hidden, needing to be careful at every step, it was becoming difficult to pretend and act different depending the circumstance.

"I really would love to have some subordinates" Allen sighed wanting to have people to delegate his work. However, he knew the truth. It was impossible.

Allen could think of good people to work with like Sayu, Ayaka, Kokomi... but he was planning a war at Inazuma for Snezhnaya to gain the opportunity to influence it, lowering the Shogun's influence. With that plan how could he recruit people from Inazuma? They should be some madman. And for people from Snezhaya, they had difficulties to enter Inazuma without being detected and investigated. Alina's resources were great to work, but all the bureaucracy fell over him.

*Ah!* Allen sighed "Let's have a morning run" Allen started his morning routine, but just as he left the house, he stopped still. In front of the house, doing a dogeza posture stood a boy about Allen's age.

"What are you doing here?" Allen asked the boy unsure.

*Pam* Listening him, the boy reacted, trembling a little but quickly hit the ground with his head "Lord Niwa! Please make me your disciple!" He requested with a loud voice.

"Wha-?!" Allen was quite surprised by the sudden shout, but quickly calmed down "Boy, I think that you got it wrong."

The boy lifted his head, confused by the younger voice "I've got the wrong person. S-sorry!" *Pam* The boy apologized hitting the ground again.

For his part, Allen's eyes went wide in shock. Red eyes with a yellow hue at the bottom plus platinum hair with a very characteristic single orange-red streak on his right. He could recognize him.

"Kaedehara Kazuha" Allen whispered.

"You know me?" Kazuha lifted his head, looking curiously.

"Of course, the Kaedehara Clan is quite famous" Allen excused, but the truth is that he knew especially him from before, before reaching this world.

Kaedehara Kazuha was the only Inazuman character that appeared in the Genshin Impact game before the Inazuma region at the 1.6 region. An Inazuman that was forced to run away from Inazuma, chased by the Shogun forces while carrying the Vision of his dead friend.

"It was quite famous, but now..." Kazuha made a sad face.

"Hey, Allen! A new friend?" Cutting their conversation, Tomoki appeared from the house, looking at Kazuha.

"No. It's the first time that I've seen him." Allen answered "He was waiting outside the house, seemingly for you."

"L-lord Niwa! I'm Kaedehara Kazuha! It's an honor!" Kazuha quickly bowed, clearly recognizing Tomoki.

*Pam* Again, Kazuha hit the ground with his head making a dogeza "Please accept me as your disciple!"

Tomoki seemed confused, not really understanding the boy. He turned over Allen looking at him with a face that asked what to do with him, not knowing how to react. Allen simply answered shrugging his shoulder, also, not really expecting the boy.

*Hah* Tomoki sighed "First of all, stand up. We can't discuss in this position. Let's enter the house and have tea while we talk." Tomoki guided Kazuha over the house.

"Thanks, Lord Niwa!" Kazuha thanked as he stood up.

"One more thing" Tomoki stopped, turning to Kazuha "Please, don't call Lord Niwa. I'm called Tomoki."

"I don't dare!" Kazuha quickly apologized, his face blushed red.

"The Niwa and Kaedehara clans had a lot of history together with the Isshin Art, surging from the same family" Tomoki explained "We always had been close friends so please don't call me Lord."

"F-friends? Tomodachi? Tomoki?" Kazuha whispered, "Yes, Tomo!" He quickly decided on a name.

"I suppose that's better, Kazuha" Tomoki smiled guiding him inside the house. "Are you fine, Allen?" Tomoki turned towards Allen who was frozen still in his place, not coming inside.

"Y-yes!" Allen quickly reacted at Tomoki's voice cutting his thoughts "I come" Allen quickly ran inside the house, following behind Tomoki and Kazuha, his gaze fixed on them.

'Tomo? That means Tomoki is Kazuha's Tomo, meaning that in a near future, he would face the Shogun and die under her sword.' Allen thought 'Not only that, it also means that the Vision carried by Kazuha from his friend was never a Vision, it was a Delusion. What can it affect this to everything together?'