It was a regular day in the University of Teyvat. Dawn had broke an hour ago, and the birds have started chirping in earnest. The sun had started peeking over the horizon, turning the sky into a myriad of different colors.

And then we cut to the students themselves, about to get on the bus for their trip...

And half of them look dead from sleep-deprivation.

"I'm tiiiiiiirrred," one of them, apparently Amber, complained. She was then forcefully dragged onto the bus by both Lisa and Kaeya, the former putting in half the work and leaving the rest to the latter. Kaeya didn't care and hoisted Amber up. Lumine, also quite sleep-deprived, kind of stumbled up the stairs and ignored Kaeya when he asked if she needed help. Kaeya looked betrayed.

"Why are you being dramatic." Diluc, also exhausted but was too stubborn to admit it on his face, looked at Kaeya as he pretty much got rejected by Lumine.

"Why, it's in my blood, dear brother."

"...You're adopted." Diluc deadpanned at Kaeya, who just looked betrayed a second time, and continued into the bus to his seat. Kaeya pouted at Diluc before trudging in the bus himself.

Jean, who had been in the bus since before dawn and was still diligently working anyway, called everyone's attention to tell them to sit down as soon as they board the bus. Getting a tired chorus of "fine" was enough for her.

Fischl, somehow, didn't look tired in the least. Mona was about to ask her for her secrets until Ozvaldo, a boy with dark purple hair and dark eyes, explained to her that his friend was trying to hide the fact that she couldn't even keep her eyes open for more than a minute.

Venti was on the bus by the time the rest came (mostly because he had to) and was furiously typing in the Council of Seven's meme chat about whatever it is he wanted to say. Jean was next to him, minding her own business but was still trying to get Venti to stop being on his phone and help the rest of the class board the bus. Venti, still focused on his meme chat, continued typing something that looked suspiciously like a deez nuts joke. Because why not, he loves terrorizing his friends with dead and semi-dead memes.

Sucrose sat next to Albedo, who was still half asleep but was trying to solve some chemistry problems anyway. Albedo looked like he had been doing this since twelve in the morning and didn't have a wink of sleep, so Sucrose tried asking to help him solve it, but Albedo just let out a rather long and concerning "No...."

Nobody really knows about Rosaria, to be honest. She always had bags under her eyes, like she pulled all nighters constantly. Her outfit choice doesn't really help either. Kaeya slumped down next to her without warning and Rosaria almost jabbed him on the side.

Eula somehow looked pristine despite it very well being early as all hell morning. She managed to sit next to Amber before Lumine could, but the latter didn't really care and sat across from Amber, next to Noelle, who had sat down and was already jotting down things to do in Liyue.

Barbara sat across from Jean and Venti, excited to see everything Liyue has to offer. Fischl sat next to her, choosing to stay quiet but sticking to her phone.

Bennett was one of the last to get on due to some oversleeping and his alarm not working...again. He dashed onto the bus, finding an empty seat nearby and sat down. Taking out his phone, he started texting a friend of his, telling him that he caught the bus and he'll try to take pictures.

After a while, they were ready to go, and the bus driver started the engine. Although...it snuffed out within minutes. The driver exited the bus to see the problem, which delayed the trip. By that time, the other bus had already left, so they were the only bus in the parking lot. Most people took it as time to chatter and wait idly, and others fell right back asleep from exhaustion. Soon after that, the bus managed to start up again, and the bus driver apologized for the inconvenience.

The next few hours was silent, since most were asleep. The ones awake played with cards, their phones, or were just talking. Lumine was scrolling through her phone when a lurch from the bus threw everyone forward, causing a lot of screaming and Lumine to drop her phone.

Lumine searched around for her phone, smiling when she found it and fished it out from under the seat. As she did, the back of her hand hit a bump in the bus wall. Looking at it, she realized what it was.

"Hey guys!" She called out, alerting everyone's attention. "How do you guys feel about an aux cord?"

——

The Liyue bus is right in front of the Mondstadt bus, going in the same direction. For the first few hours, it was peaceful and quiet, save for the occasional groan of defeat in the middle of the bus since Ningguang and Beidou were in a heated competition over some video game. Ningguang, with her strategic skills, kept barely beating Beidou, whose tactics got more and more refined with each battle.

It was towards about noon when there was loud noise from outside. Yanfei looked back from her window, affirming there was no crash or anything. Zhongli, who was near the front, turned around in confusion. Tartaglia, who was next to him, listened in on the noises, trying to piece together what the fuck was happening. Finally, he noticed that the noises were a bunch of tunes, and it seems most of the bus realized it was familiar too.

"Guys...is that fucking 'Levitating'?"

——

"I swear to all the archons, this entire bus is now a karaoke session."

Most of the bus was shaken awake by Venti and Mona belting out the lyrics to "Levitating", and even Barbara was singing along softly. You see, it started out like this...

"Hey guys! How do you feel about an aux cord?" Lumine yells out, alerting all the students awake right now.

"Fucking BET."

And with each passing song the voices singing grew louder and louder, and more people started joining in. Diluc is not happy about this, but to be honest, Jean isn't either. Eula couldn't care less, but since Amber and Kaeya are enabling them, she guesses she will too. Rosaria is burying her face in her hands and Lisa, halfway through the song, started mouthing the lyrics.

But oh, it did not stop there. The next song had everyone sing even louder somehow, shaking awake more students and possibly reaching the ears of the people in the bus in front of them (Hint: Zhongli is trying to contact Venti on the other bus as we speak, but said bus is too loud for Venti to notice the notifications).

Thankfully, Yanfei is the one that makes solid contact with the Mondstadt bus, having called Eula and Eula conveniently had her phone out to record just about everything going down right now.

"What in the world is happening back there? Is that Taylor Swift in the background?" were Yanfei's first questions. Eula just sighed heavily.

"Want to see for yourself?" Eula turned the phone around and Yanfei sees absolute mayhem. Someone at some point had popped out the party streamers and confetti, and someone else started blowing into a noisemaker. Kaeya then yells that he has a better idea and brings out a kazoo, holding it up high in the air like in the Lion King. Amber starts screeching the first lines of "The Circle of Life" and then everyone suddenly joins in as well, causing the students on Yanfei's end to turn towards the source of the noise in confusion.

"What in the fuck—" Xiao tried to say in the background but quickly gets interrupted when Kaeya blows into the kazoo to the Lion King tune. Hu Tao cackles loudly in the background, before someone asks "Is that the Macarena—"

And sure enough, the first notes to Macarena come blasting out the speakers, alerting everyone on both buses. Some from the Liyue bus start chanting the lyrics just as the Mondstadt bus erupts into a chorus of yelling and singing and a mixture of both.

"You guys can check if there's an aux cord on your end," Eula said to Yanfei. The pink haired girl looked back, if searching for it, and smiled when she found it.

Yanfei then hurriedly says goodbye and hangs up, but not before she yells "I FOUND THE AUX CORD!"

——

Back at university, Kazuha was video chatting with Tomo, with Scaramouche and Goro watching behind him. Kokomi was too, but she made sure to not show herself on camera.

"Hey Kazu! I see you made some friends!" Tomo exclaimed, which Kazuha rolls his eyes to.

"You know I had friends in every school."

"THAT WAS ME—"

Kazuha continued on, completely ignoring Tomo. "So the brown haired with white streaks is Goro, his girlfriend over there is Kokomi," He points to Goro then Kokomi, who was sitting a little away from them and hiding her face behind a manga when Kazuha tilted the phone towards her, "And the one next to me is Scaramouche."

"Wait a second!" Goro started sputtering, face tinged with red. "Kokomi isn't my girlfriend—"

"Kazuha's right, you two act so gross together," Scaramouche deadpanned at the same time, dodging the pillow Goro throws at him.

"You always agree with Kazu!"

"Ah, did you get yourself a boyfriend, Zuzu? And I thought we were in this together..." Tomo gasped with mock hurt, placing a hand on his chest in dramatic fashion. Scaramouche silently chokes on air and Kazuha rolled his eyes.

"Stop being dramatic, Momo, you're my one and only," Kazuha stopped, smirking, then said, "informant, at least."

"Oh, is that how you see me? I'm hurt!" Tomo gasped dramatically again, before realizing something his friend had said. "Wait, stop calling me Momo, it makes me sound like a wuss."

"Only if you stop calling me Zuzu."

"I could never!"

"Archons, they sound like a married couple," Scaramouche made a gagging noise, to which Goro raises an eyebrow at him.

"So anyway, what did you want from me today, Zuzu?" Tomo asked. Kazuha's face fell flat at the nickname, but composes himself quickly.

"Information on a certain organization. They're still up and running strong, despite its most elite members quitting recently. Didn't you work in that organization for a short while or something?"

"It was for, like, three weeks before I quit." Tomo sighed. "Not like I made many connections there."

"No, not that, I mean can you hack into their databases or something?" Kazuha pressed. "It seems the council has been at stalemate for a while."

"And how do you know that?"

"Ei tells Scara everything."

Scaramouche perks up at his name, but scowls when he registers his sister's. He goes back to his phone just as Tomo states that he can try hacking in, but will probably not get concrete information.

"After all, they're pretty elite...not as easy as hacking into a website run by pseudo-hackers," Tomo started. "Just getting their location alone would be a feat."

"Maybe the dark web? They might have info."

"Are you trying to get me to do illegal shit, Zuzu?"

"What location?" Kazuha and Tomo are alerted by Scaramouche's sudden response. Kazuha sees that Goro and Kokomi are now attentive as well. He sighs in exasperation, turning to Tomo for answers.

"I'm sure roping your friends in your private investigation is okay, but if we do find info, how are we gonna tell the council?" Tomo asks, which is a good question since the whole thing is pretty confidential.

"Considering we have someone with a close connection to the council..." Goro looks at Scaramouche, "Scara, you be the middle man."

"Wha—why me?!"

"Who else is gonna tell them? Me?" Goro exaggerates his hand movements. "I can't just go up to Zhongli and say 'hey, so uh we found some information on a case you're looking into—' that'll blow our cover—"

"Okay okay, fiiiinee." Scaramouche slaps a hand on Goro's mouth, shutting up his tirade.

"Tomo, I can help as well." Kokomi waved a hand at the camera to alert Tomo. "I studied hacking in my own time, I can break through a few walls we may encounter."

"And so this plan has been established! Awesome, now you're all my accomplices and if I'm going down, you're going down with me—"

"Shut up, Tomo."

"Okay, okay, Zuzu. Talk to you guys later!"

When he hangs up, Scaramouche takes the opportunity to ask what they're looking into.

"Well," Kazuha started, "Tomo used to work in this shady organization. I don't know if you know it, but..."

As soon as the name was out, it seemed all three of them realized what they were looking into.