Chapter Text
"Let's go find some treasure!"
That was how this entire mess got started.
They had met at the Lantern Rite festival in an impromptu waverider competition (that's a wild story in and of itself). How did Bennett manage to get these people he'd just met on an adventure team?
"No, it's too risky. Find someone else." Xiao had initially said.
"I'm busy proving to the stiffs at the Akademiya that my work is still as valid today as it was a hundred years ago!" Madam Faruzan declared.
"Awww, come on, Benny hasn't gone on an adventure in a long time!" Yoimiya said. "Please?"
"With this disrespectful child?" Faruzan glared toward Xiao's direction. "Hmph! I think not."
"Who's really the child here?" said Xiao in response. "It's certainly not me, an adeptus that has lived many human lifetimes in comparison to this little girl."
Yoimiya sighed. "Come on... pretty please? Look, I know you two don't get along, but do it for Benny... he already has it bad enough as it is!"
"If I'm not mistaken," Xiao began. "You two nearly drowned several times before capsizing in a double whirlpool."
"Aheheheh...." Yoimiya laughed nervously, scratching the back of her head. "It wasn't that bad, I was... previously soaked anyway from drying off Klee! And besides, Benny couldn't help it. It's not his fault. You understand, right?"
Xiao sighed. "Fine."
"And Faruzan?" Yoimiya said hopefully.
"What's that?" Faruzan put a hand to her ear. "I'm sorry, but these old ears didn't quite catch what you said."
Yoimiya sighed. "And how about you, Madam Faruzan?"
"Mmhmm." she nodded. "I can hear you loud and clear now. Well... fine. Being locked up in a room, trying to impress a bunch of stiffs who will never appreciate my genius does get rather tiresome. I'll tag along with you youngsters."
"Yay!" Yoimiya jumped in excitement before running off. "Wait'll Benny hears this!"
"R-Really? Are you serious?" Benny said in disbelief after Yoimiya told him the good news.
"Yup!" she nodded. "It was a little difficult to convince them, but I managed in the end, hehe."
"Wow... thanks Yoimiya! I haven't been on an adventure in such a long time... no one seems to want to go with me."
"Well, I want to go with you!" Yoimiya said cheerfully. "And I'm sure we're going to have lots of fun in the end. So, you said you were interested in exploring Inazuma to find some treasure, right?"
"Yeah!" Benny rolled out a map he had of the region. "I was thinking we could check out this island."
Yoimiya gulped. "Th-That island?"
"Yeah. Is... something wrong with it?"
"Hmmm.... well, it's often very stormy. And it's constantly struck by lightning."
"Then there must be TONS of treasure! Such a dangerous island is bound to be left mostly unexplored!"
"Well, yeah, but--"
"It's settled. Benny's adventure team.... ASSEMBLE!"
"No, wait, listen!" Yoimiya then sighed. "It really is dangerous. Amber even told me that one time, the Cavalry Captain got struck by lightning a total of 4 times when he was on an exploration there."
"R-Really? Huh. That's weird..." Benny was thoughtful for a moment.
"Th-There's other islands we could try that would be safer, like Kokomi Island!" That wasn't really what it was called, but Yoimiya couldn't think of the name off the top of her head.
"But what about all the treasure?"
"Ah..." Yoimiya couldn't think of anything else to say. "True, true. We're bound to find a lot of chests and secrets. I'm probably overthinking this anyway. Kaeya probably just had a really bad day. There's no way you can get struck by lightning that many times on a regular basis."
"NGH!" Xiao was thrown back onto the wet grass as a bolt of lightning struck him.
"Are you OK?!" Benny asked, a bit panicked since he was near the lightning strike himself.
"Fine." Xiao huffed, standing under a tree.
"Phew... that's a relief. So, where should we go first?"
"Uh... well, normally when you go adventuring like this, you just run around, defeat enemies, and unlock chests!" Yoimiya replied. "Simple ~"
Only for this band of adventurers, it was not simple. Many of them found themselves on the brink of death, and there was hardly any treasure to be found.
"We haven't found a single chest!" Benny complained.
"Then this entire trip was a waste of time." Xiao seethed.
"A big waste of time!" Faruzan added.
"Wait! I think I see a chest over there!" Yoimiya pointed. "And it isn't guarded either. Getting this treasure should be a piece of cake ~"
Only they came to find that it wasn't.
The chest was surrounded by several swords and had a seal that needed to be broken.
"Hmmm.... it seems this is a puzzle of some sort..." Faruzan analyzed. "That glob of electricity hanging around, what is it?"
"It's actually a seelie!" Yoimiya replied.
"A seelie?" Faruzan's interest was peeked. She had never seen a seelie look anything like this. She quickly took down notes.
"Hmm... seelies need to move around to a certain place, right?" Benny said. "I could get it moving!"
"Hold on, I am trying to--" but before Faruzan could stop him, Benny started running around, causing the seelie to move from one sword to the other in constant motion.
Suddenly, lightning struck Madam Faruzan, throwing her back and causing her to scream angrily, "Wretched DASTARD!"
"I-I'm sorry, I was only trying to help!" Benny told her.
Just then, some enemies appeared, and it wasn't easy to take down, but they managed. Although Faruzan would hate to admit it, Benny keeping the seelie in constant movement was a big help. Either way, the puzzle was solved, and they finally got to open a chest.
The rest of the adventure.... turned out to be more of a grind and they hardly got any treasure for it. This island was surprisingly barren.
"We've hardly found any treasure!" Benny shouted in frustration.
"Haaaa.... and Electro Abyss Mages are scary..." Yoimiya caught her breath, trying to straighten out her now frizzy hair.
"A waste of time." Xiao huffed.
"Huh, wait... what's that in the ground? It seems to be an opening." Faruzen noticed. "It looks like it leads to some kind of chamber."
Without even asking the rest of her teammates if it was a good idea to explore, Madam Faruzan deployed her wind glider in descent.
"Hey, wait!" Yoimiya chased after her, and the rest followed suit (Xiao was very exasperated at this point).
"Treasure!" Benny shouted as the sight of a treasure chest caught his attention.
"I knew this place had to be loaded with forgotten chests stuffed to the brim. You're welcome." Faruzan stated proudly.
And then metal gates above and below them slid shut, trapping them inside.
Xiao sighed. "You've led us into a trap."
"Tch, I did not!" Faruzan replied defensively. "Ahem... it's not like this hasn't happened to me before... there should be a puzzle somewhere to solve. Aha!"
There were four levers, two on each side of the square hole that was currently gated after their entrance.
"This should do the trick. All we need to do is pull these levers, and walla! The gates open."
She pulled one after another, only for them to reset.
"You were saying?" Xiao said, his arms crossed.
"Well, clearly they need to be done in a particular sequence." Madam Faruzan began trying a few other combinations, but to no avail. "Come on, this is such a simple puzzle. Why is nothing working?"
"Hmmm, there's four levers, right?" Yoimiya said. "That means there's a total of 24 possible --"
Faruzan glared at her. "I know that."
"Aheh.... sorry."
If Madam Faruzan couldn't figure it out, no one could. After all, she was the self-proclaimed genius of the group, a master at puzzles. She could not allow a mere sequence of four levers get the best of her.
"Aha!"
And with that, the gates opened. Faruzan beamed with pride.
"Whoa! You're smart!" Benny cheered.
"After you, youngster ~"
"O-Oh, no, I couldn't! After all, age before beau--ahem, ladies first!"
Luckily (for once), Madam Faruzan didn't notice his near slip up. "Hm. Alright then. Yoimiya, come with me."
The two deployed their wind gliders, descending deeper into the chamber, with Benny and Xiao following after. More sealed treasure abound, but not without the hardship of tackling various enemies. Even so, Benny seemed quite pleased.
"Alright, that was cool!" Benny beamed, his arms full of all sorts of artifacts, crystals, Mora, etc.
It would seem they had fulfilled exactly what was needed of an adventure team. Solving puzzles, finding treasure... their adventure could have ended here.
Oh, but they would soon learn that it wasn't quite over yet. And all previous hurdles were only minor hindrances in comparison.