Sunrise was hours off, the shifting waves of Teyvat's vast waters like dancing shadows. No one in their right mind would have set out in such pitch blackness, the clouds above blocking out what little light the moon would've provided. It hadn't been more than a few minutes since they set out and both the Alcor and the island they'd stopped on were swallowed up by the darkness.
But her crew, spread across the waters in groups of small boats, braved it alongside her without any hesitation. Most were from the Sword of The Crux Fleet; members of her crew who skills were combat orientated , with a few from the Shield of The Crux Fleet; those with a more varied and general list of skills that ensured their ventures went smoothly, many things such as navigation handled by them.
Beidou raised a telescope to her eye and just barely made out a single light shining on the Alcor behind them. The crew make-up was the opposite on there, a majority of the crew left in charge coming from the Shield with a few swords members dotted in case things didn't go to plan.
So far so good.
"All well, Captain?" The old man questioned across from her.
"Worried about the kid?" Beidou asked as she lowered the telescope. "You've really taken a liking to him."
"Those who find themselves on the path of martial arts are often drawn to it by their lack of strength. I am curious as to what a monster can accomplish with such teachings."
"A monster, huh?" That was not an inaccurate description; the kid's strength outclassed many of the nastier beasts she'd encountered on the seas to such a degree that she doubted she could've fought with him so often without the natural benefits that came along with being a vision bearer. And that's while he was blissfully unaware of the extent of his own strength.
Just who had he been before they found him?
"I'd say the young man has managed to capture more than your passing interest." She couldn't make out much of his face in this darkness, but she could feel the smile in the old fossil's tone. "You let him get a little too close during those spars."
Beidou snorted, not bothering with some half-hearted denial or deflection. It was so easy to get the kid riled up that she couldn't help herself sometimes. Those reddened faces of his were as cute as they were entertaining.
"Either way. I suspect the Alcor will be just fine no matter how this goes with him onboard." Hei added.
After their scouting was done, the plan they'd put together and were now seeing through was simple.
She and those on these smaller boats would head to the island the pirates were using as a base, hitting them hard and fast under the cover of darkness, securing the area where the hostages were kept first. By the time the group wizened up enough to attempt to flee or retaliate, the distant Alcor would've caught up and began sinking their capital ship from afar.
Would things go that smoothly? Unlikely but she'd do her damndest to see it through.
"That's some faith you have in him." Beidou said, not doubting the kid's strength but his conviction.
He didn't have the nerve to face the kind of people they were dealing with. Not from what she'd seen.
…
Anxiety was something Vincent was intimately familiar with. That anxious wait minutes before the results of a test. A heart pumping ranked match in just about any game. Someone telling him they had bad news.
Nothing he'd ever felt during those moments compared to the pitfall that'd taken the place of his stomach.
Stuffed into the storeroom of a ship while its crew set out to handle some pirates? He never could've imagined something like this happening let alone fathom the finger-biting dread that accompanied it.
"How are you so calm?" Shi asked from beside him, sitting against one of the many boxes in the room, shaking hands in his lap. "Aren't you scared?"
It was strange. Despite the dread smothering Vincent's racing mind, none of it showed. His hands were steady, breathing stable, and none of the clamminess he expected wetting his hands. His mind and this body were still out of sync in ways he didn't fully understand.
"I am." How could he not be? Genshin might've spared many details when it came to its depiction of violence, likely to preserve that T-rating, but this was reality, not some game. He'd seen the look in the crew's eyes, Beidou and the Old Man included, and heard some of what the roughest members said. They were going to save the hostages and put an end to the pirates.
A permanent end.
"But Beidou knows what she's doing." Vicent said. He'd been with them for less than a month and in a bleak situation, but she managed to inspire a mix of hope and confidence out of him like no one he's ever met.
"I'm not like everyone else here." Shi muttered. "They chose to be here. They wanted to do this. I just didn't have anywhere else to go. I don't belong here."
Vincent didn't know the full story behind how Shi came to be a part of the crew -he wasn't in a position to be sticking his nose in other people's business- but he did know the feeling. Welcoming as they were, this fleet, this very world, wasn't where he belonged.
"I don't think you'll ever just belong. It's not something that happens one day. As long as you keep doing something, anything, you'll find your place." It's one of the things he'd always told himself anyways. Comparing all of this to being the student kid at school, joining a sport or club, or anything he considered normal was a reach, but he had to hope doing something was better than nothing.
He had a powerful body, possibly future and past knowledge about the world that others wouldn't, and some kind of system. He quite literally had a head start in life, this whole thing like some sort of trippy new game plus he didn't ask for. He could easily squander all that by doing nothing and losing himself in the limbo of depressing thoughts that never seemed to go away.
Had it not been for the crew, for Beidou, he might very well have.
A distant clap, like that of thunder, reverberated through the very ship and several bangs from above followed. It took him a moment to realize that it was a volley of ballista and canon fire. Only the first volley. More followed over the course of what felt like hours, the plan well underway.
Yells and shouts abruptly came from above.
As far as he knew the plan didn't include any fighting aboard the Alcor. Yet the sudden stopping of canon fire and yells that sounded nothing like organized orders but more…primal in nature had a meaning he feared. Something hadn't gone to plan.
Whatever it was, those above could handle it.
They were professional sailors that did this sort of thing for a living. He was just some city kid stuffed into a stranger's body and thrown into a chaotic world in the process.
They could handle it.
And yet body betrayed thought, Vincent shooting up, sword clenched in one hand as he rushed out of the room and down the hall. He made it up onto the deck and froze in place.
Swords and spears clashed, dark red blood spilling across the wood of the ship as people he didn't recognize rushed towards those firing the canons, the bloody battle lit up by the distant flaming ship on the shores of an island.
Beidou's people were cutting down the intruders but not without cost, some of the crew hitting the ground and clenching fresh wounds. More of the crew joined in on the battle, cannons fully abandoned as they protected one another, but clearly struggling as more of the intruders pulled themselves onboard.
He had to move. Use the sword given to him and help.
His feet remained rooted in place as the fight carried on.
What was he supposed to do? Cut people down with a sword? Kill?
He spotted Xingmi, stumbling back and holding a bloody shoulder. Baohu moved in front of her, stabbing through the attacking pirate with a sword only to immediately be forced to fend off another.
He took a shaky step forward but couldn't manage another.
Even if he wasn't by some miracle, cut down on the spot, could he do it? Kill another living person? Injure them for that matter? Could he?
As more boarded the Alcor one, sword raised and face contorted by rage, rushed him, their blade shining beneath the distant flames.
It was him or them.
One moment he was frozen stiff. In the next his sword was in his hand, freed from its sheath and cutting upwards, the pirate's blade shattered and chest sliced open. They hit the ground and he looked at the others.
It was him or them.
Cold numbness, similar to what he felt when he first awakened on the ship, did away with hesitation and anxiety as he swung.
It was him or them.
That logical conclusion justified each swing, the numbness growing.
Him or them.