It was spring when the Shinra clan came to Wutai. Their ships landed on the peninsula on the other side of her family's land, where she'd been told the sand was pale and golden instead of the black shore she could see from the palace windows. A winding line of men and chocobos crossed the rock and scrubby grass between, making their way into the forest to begin fighting their way north; Arisu waited very patiently with all the wisdom of her four years of age, until her family was loudly distracted talking about how their helping the Shinras overthrow the Kisuragi shogun would propel them to ruling in turn, before taking her little bag and slipping out of the palace gate.

The forest was further away than she'd thought it would be, as she hurried along to make the most of the dark; she made it under the shelter of the trees before the moon dipped below the sea, and she murmured a goodnight to Kaguya-hime-sama before falling fast asleep herself at the roots of a sheltering tree.

When she woke up, the petals of the wild pear tree she had slept under had dusted her hair like stars, and the Shinras' Silver Demon was standing over her, looking down like he'd never seen a little runaway before in his life.