Keqing…. I’m so sorry. If I had told you everything sooner then none of this would have happened. 

Her mother had been wrong to say that in their final moments together. Truthfully, even if Daiyu had revealed everything she had discovered in her youth then Keqing would never have believed her. She had fallen for the temptation of power that was promised by her aunt.

Baochai made lofty promises and her world would be one of endless pleasures, wealth, and even godhood. It was only at her mother’s side in her last moments when she realized the truth of the matter was that none of them were really gods. Not even the Fang Sisters who were among the last spirits in existence were anything more than ordinary entities, now exotic but once as mundane as grass.

Did she leave everything to me, or did I leave everything to her? Keqing thought as she strolled through the temple courtyard and paused to mourn the loss of the monk who had resided there before. She had arrived too late to stop another needless death. 

Once again she had failed someone. 

Failure. That was all her life had ever been, and when she had realized her mistakes all she could do was run away to a quiet abandoned spot of the world and hide. Her reincarnated mother and aunt who returned to life as her own children had toiled, suffered, and struggled because of her shortcomings. 

I failed my mother when I did not heed her countless warnings or advice. I failed my firstborn when I left her to be raised in misery without a mother. I failed my youngest when I let her carry the burden of undoing our family mistake. Keqing thought sorrowfully as she now continued into the sacred temple after the intruder. 

All her life she had assisted others to become the best versions of themselves, and worked to ensure every person received a second chance. However, Keqing had never redeemed herself for her past sins. Just like her oldest daughter, she had taken countless lives for her own bemusement. But unlike Jisoo, Keqing did not have a broken childhood or corrupted mind to explain her cruelty. 

It was purely her own greed and self-indulgence. Her victims had never received proper justice. It was unfair for her to live prosperously as a motherly figure for so many people when she herself had never paid for her actions. 

Satsuki opened her eyes from her meditative trance when she noticed her footsteps down the dusty corridor. She furrowed her brow in surprise. “Keqing Chen.” Satsuki murmured and preemptively drew her sword. 

I failed you too, Satsuki. Keqing thought and stopped a few meters away from the fearsome woman. “Please, there is no need for violence.” She insisted. “I did not come here to fight you.”

“You could have avoided this, you know. If you had given us your daughters on the day they were born then neither of them would have turned out like this.” Satsuki mentioned. “Both of them became weapons in the end.”

“I felt as though there was no other choice. They would have either become tools for the Amrita Corporation, or the catalyst for Project Amaterasu.” Keqing replied with a sigh. And all I managed to accomplish was the destruction of their lives, among countless others.

The yokai took a step forward with her blade still drawn. “If you came here with the intention to talk me down, don’t bother.” Satsuki remarked. “The omikami will be freed. Your daughter will become her living vessel.”

“I’m sorry, Satsuki. You’ve had to live with the weight of an entire species' future on your shoulders. That must have been unimaginably difficult.” Keqing responded despairingly. “For your entire life you’ve been alone. Unable to call yourself completely human and never able to reveal who you really are to anybody who could relate with you.”

“I don’t need your pity, Keqing.”

“Is there nothing I can do to change your mind? It is not too late to resolve this amicably. A world where spirits and humans can exist together in harmony would be the most just conclusion to your life’s work.” Keqing asked earnestly, although she already knew the answer. 

Satsuki shook her head from side to side. “That’s impossible. I am mere hours away from victory. To just give up everything now would be foolish.” She decreed. “You cannot stop me, Keqing. Even as weak as I am now, I am still a spirit and you are just a human. Go say your farewells to your daughter before her body is seized.”

If that is how it must be. Keqing thought, and cursed her own inability to fix another life. She raised her hand as a bright glow emitted from her fingers, and Satsuki’s eyes went wide in alarm. “So be it.” 

In one moment, Jisoo was in an expansive field of maize in the cool darkness of the nighttime gale winds. The next, she was in an endless expanse of misty white. She gazed around in confusion. 

Min was nowhere to be found in the fog. Neither was the helicopter she had arrived in or the farmhouse she had passed on her journey westward. There was no sky or discernible environment in the dreamscape. Only endless mist illuminated by an unnatural light source. 

Where am I?! Please don’t tell me this is the transference ritual! Jisoo thought in despair. If what Min had told her was true, and her own actions had led to the revival of an ancient spirit that sought vengeance on the world… 

“J-Jisoo?!” A familiar voice suddenly called through the void. Jisoo spun around to see shadows coalesce in the mist until a silhouette appeared like a phantom. Her sister jogged closer towards her until she appeared perfectly normal, although also trapped in the strange void like space. 

How could Suji be here as well? Where are we? Jisoo asked as she embraced her sister and wrapped her in a tight hug. “What happened to you? Do you know where we are?”

“I was just about to ask you the same thing. I assumed it was your magic that brought me here.” Suji murmured. “Just moments ago I was in the safehouse with Maeve and Eren.”

“Are they okay?”

“They’re fine… I don’t know if my body is still with them or not though. Could this be a shared dream? A memory echo?” Suji suggested as she inspected their ethereal environment.

No… If it was a memory then we would not be here as Jisoo and Suji. We would be Daiyu and Baochai. Jisoo considered and folded her arms. “…Something has happened. I was in America and Aunt Min arrived to confront me.” She explained. “It would take too long to explain everything, but the short version is that Satsuki planned all of this. She wanted me to one day get this powerful so I would destroy a kind of barrier between humans and supernatural creatures.”

“What? That doesn’t make any fucking sense!”

“Look, that's what Min told me! I don’t know how much of it was true, but if she was not lying then we have a massive problem. We need to get out of here and…!” Jisoo trailed off when she recognized another figure in the mist. 

Keqing emerged from the fog with a saddened expression. She appeared very faint, and walked with a pronounced limp. Her hair had lightened several shades to be gray, and her skin was laden with many wrinkles which revealed her age. “I am pleased to see both of you continue to get along just as well as you did in the past. Some relationships persist even beyond death.” She said lovingly, as her children gazed upon her new appearance in concern. “There is no need to be alarmed. The spirit world was not meant for humans such as myself to exist in for very long. This is a very natural consequence as my body attempts to acclimate.”

“Spirits?” Suji repeated in confusion. She glanced back over to Jisoo. “Is that what you meant by ‘creatures’?” She asked, and inspected her own fingers. 

To her surprise, Suji appeared just as beautiful as she always was. Keqing noticed her befuddlement and continued. “You are not exactly like me, Suji. As a direct reincarnation of a spirit this is technically your home.”

“This is the spirit world?” Jisoo asked and peered around. She had thought the realm would be more fantastical, at the very least. Instead everything was gray, bleak and mundane. Completely hollow and devoid of life. 

Is it like this because most of the spirits were slain? Jisoo thought and recalled what Min had said about the fate of yokai. “Min told me a few things. I honestly didn’t believe her at the time.” She muttered. “Where’s Satsuki? We have to stop her before she can release the omikami.”

“Omikami? Can someone please tell me what’s happening!” Suji cried in exasperation and folded her arms. 

Jisoo shrugged. “Don’t be upset. I just found out about all of this minutes ago.” She revealed. “According to Min, you and I are descended from an entity known as a spirit. Hence why we are ‘special’.”

“What does that have to do with Satsuki Nishidate?” 

“Satsuki is also a spirit, known as a yuki-onna, albeit not as powerful as either of you in her current state.” Keqing interjected to clarify. “To put it very simply, the downfall of spirits at the hands of humans caused a barrier to form between the mundane world and the spirit world and the magic found here. Satsuki planned for Jisoo to unleash her true potential, and as a consequence destroy that barrier. In so doing she would also release an ancient and very powerful spirit known as the omikami.” She explained.

A ‘yuki-onna’? Jisoo thought and furrowed her brow once she translated the term in her mind. “A snow woman?”

“It is a title that refers more to personality traits rather than actual physical characteristics. Similarly you are not a fox with nine tails, and Suji is not a raccoon-dog.” Keqing remarked and chuckled when her younger daughter’s eyes went wide. “Daiyu was a kitsune, and Baochai was a tanuki, or a bake-danuki. Both very powerful spirits with the ability to change their shapes, and in your cases, size.” 

“So both me and Jisoo are not human.” Suji said aloud as she came to terms with it. Still she seemed frustrated. “Why did you not tell either of us sooner? You knew all these years and never thought it might be important?!”

“I’m inclined to agree with that sentiment… You should have told us.” Jisoo said and echoed her sister’s words.

Sure, when I first arrived at the monastery it probably would have been a bad idea to clue me in on the fact that I wasn’t human. I needed to unlearn everything the Amrita Corporation drilled into my psyche. But surely before I left, she could have told me something. And this means that mother has lied to Suji her entire life. Jisoo thought. “So what gives? Why only tell us now?”

“In your past life as Daiyu, you specifically told me not to reveal the truth until it was absolutely necessary. I believe you knew it would be better for you to live as normal a life as possible in the event you were ever reincarnated.” Keqing responded. She looked over to Suji. “Forgive, Suji. I was only trying to fulfill my mothers wishes. This information does not change anything else about you.”

“...You knew what Satsuki’s plan was. There was no need to warn either of us in advance since you figured you could stop it anyways.” Jisoo realized. “So how did you manage to stop her? I was about to make a run for the Japanese coast and look for her.”

“And if you did it would have led to your possession. Satsuki would have conducted the transference ritual the moment you confronted her, and the omikami would have taken over your body.”

“But you managed to beat her?” Suji asked and raised a brow. 

Keqing shook her head and touched a finger to her chest. “Not exactly. I absorbed her spirit essence into my own body the same way I absorbed your own for the purposes of reincarnation.” She explained. “Daiyu taught me the spell before she ‘died’ with this exact intention to stop Baochai from destroying the world any further.”

“So… Satsuki isn’t actually dead then. She’s trapped inside of you.” Jisoo proclaimed, and shivered at that uncomfortable thought. 

Satsuki is the last person on the planet I would ever want inside my subconscious. Jisoo said to herself. “You spared her.”

“Despite all of her evil acts, I do not believe it was Satsuki’s fault that she ended up like this.” Keqing replied with an affirmative nod. “From her first breath she was forced to shoulder the burdens of an entire species. Her surrogate family that brought her into the world through ritual considered her a tool to be used to accomplish their objectives and nothing more. She was alone without a single person to relate to or consider a friend. Perhaps it was because she knew you were a spirit as well which explains why she despised Jisoo so much. Unlike her you lived in blissful ignorance of your true nature and did not have any of the drawbacks involved with her own miserable existence.” Their mother said empathetically. 

Satsuki had been the one who pushed Grace to torture Eren. She had encouraged the family to treat Jisoo as an outcast years ago, and not once had she spoken with Jisoo in anything less than a tone of utter disdain. By all means she should have hated her, but Jisoo realized how pointless that would have been.

It was not Satsuki’s fault that she had been brought up the way she was. If she lived with a normal family that treated her like a regular person…

Me and her are not that different in that regard I guess. If I did not grow up the way I did, I would have never become a monster in the first place. In another life I could have just as easily turned out like Satsuki, if I did not have friends and family to support me. Jisoo thought and realized how horrible her old nemesis’s life must have been. “You did the right thing. It was too late for Satsuki in this lifetime, but that does not mean she deserved to die for her actions.” Jisoo eventually professed. “Maybe in the next one she can become a better person… Does that mean you intend to raise her?”

“I plan to. Whatever kind of person this spirit really is when showered in the affection and love every child should receive, I will see to it myself that she grows up to be the best version of herself.” Keqing remarked and touched her stomach.

I see now why mother said our ancestry is ‘complicated’. Since spirits don’t really reproduce the way humans do, reincarnation muddies the waters. Satsuki will technically become my ‘family’ in a sense. It was an absurd thought, but it was an easier prospect to accept compared to outright killing Satsuki. Jisoo had sworn she would never take another life, but if there had not been a way to talk Satsuki down from her apocalyptic plan…

She exhaled deeply and plopped to the ground. “For a moment there I thought the world was absolutely fucked, and it would have been all my fault.” Jisoo said and rubbed her tired eyes. “But it’s over. It’s actually over now.”

“...Not exactly.” Suji said and got on her haunches above Jisoo. “The Amrita Corporation still exists, and even without the support of national governments the company is incredibly powerful. We’ll need to thoroughly dismantle it.”

“That won’t be difficult. I intend to shrink every member of the company who has blood on their hands.” Jisoo remarked, then bit her lip. “Then… Then I need to figure out if I’m going to shrink everybody else in the world as well.”