bamboozled.

Oh Kazuha, for playing such a significant role in the Inazuma archon quest, I consider you as much of a mystery as Yae Miko herself.

Before we get into this, I do feel the need to say that my intention with any friendship analysis is not to rank Kazuha's friendships or downplay the bond between a character and Kazuha. The truth is Kazuha has strong, unique bonds with all of the characters mentioned here. My intention is to use these friendships as a way to better understand Kazuha himself, who I find to be a subtly guarded character who values all of his friends greatly, but also is an expert at shutting them out.

TL;DR: kazuha wields An Emo power. he is also a cat(?).

The Lonely Wanderer

"People with no worries like myself speak plainly, while those with many cares often speak of ancient poetry or the scenery. They talk of flowers and birds, wind and moon, but never about the reality that confronts them. He's got quite the tale to tell, I'm sure." -Yoimiya: About Kaedehara Kazuha

Kazuha is many things, but straightforward is not one of them. On the surface, he is nothing but friendly to us (the Traveler) and shows a lighthearted, gentle demeanor. However, not long after meeting him he reveals the heavy burden he's carrying from failing to arrive in time to save his friend from a noble but foolhardy plan to challenge the Vision Hunters. It is immediately apparent, however, that Kazuha intends to share none of this burden with the Traveler:

Traveler: If you need to talk more, I'm here to listen.

Kazuha: ...Do not let my feelings trouble you. But thank you.

And it's not like Kazuha is coping well with it on his own. For a long time, he couldn't even speak to anyone on the Crux. The mental image from his Character Story 1 is jarring compared to who we get to know in the Inazuma prologue. Kazuha's voice lines are no better:

"'On this mountain path, where the red leaves lifeless lie... My heart calls for a companion, echoing the deer's cry...' Hm...I do love maple leaves, but it's a shame that so many goodbyes seem to happen when they turn red." -Something to Share: Maple Leaves

"The sounds of nature turn into a clamor of noise during stormy weather. If it happens at night, I end up tossing and turning all night long without getting a wink of sleep. It's quite the headache..." -Kaedehara Kazuha's Troubles

Through this we become privy to one of his many contradictions: Kazuha presents himself as a carefree individual, and embodies his beliefs in peaceful wandering as a meaningful way to live one's life, but he has many worries beneath this that he takes on by himself. He self-imposes his loneliness to maintain a safe emotional distance from even his closest friends.

From these voice lines, the truth of him lies in what he is not saying rather than what he actually says. In the first one, he quotes a heartfelt poem to convey his loneliness and sorrow from his loss, then instantly softens the blow with a more detached remark. The second voice line, on the surface, is about his high sensitivity to nature and sound, but beneath this it is about his discontent with the Raiden Shogun (symbolized by stormy weather) and the inability for her ideal of Stasis Eternity to coexist with his own ideals, which are closer to Makoto's ideal of Transience.

What's even more rich about this is his voice line about liking frank people, and how he wants the Traveler to not hide anything they want to say. Ah yes, Kazuha, because this is definitely a two-way street. I know he's trying, but still lol. You could also subscribe to a slightly edgy interpretation of this voice line as a sign that he doesn't like this aspect of himself, and he wants to be a more straightforward person like Gorou.

As bonus points, I think the only other character that could rival Kazuha's unwillingness to share emotional burdens was Tomo himself. Even with what little we do know about this vague sketch of a character mihoyo created, he was The Solitary Pursuit of Lightning, pursuing strength that rivaled the gods on his own terms and ultimately by himself, without Kazuha, to the bitter end.

The Wanderer and the Floral Zither

"Even Beidou, ever the good judge of character, could not tell that Kazuha could wield a sword with the skill of a seasoned warrior when she first decided to take him in." -Kaedehara Kazuha: Character Details

The next of Kazuha's contradictions is his gap moe the unassuming front he puts on that hides a truly awesome strength. And yes, I do believe this front is as intentional as it is unintentional - Kazuha is truly a friendly person, with interests in more "gentle" matters such as poetry, but showing this side of himself so prominently gives him the upper-hand over others if things start to go south. Tuned to the World's Sounds (the zither quest) gives us a unique perspective on this, and shows a further contradiction of his:

"An unpredictable strength has been woven into the ethereal strings that can even allow it to cause the illusions within the heart of its player to surface. There is an old adage in Liyue: "the longer one's eye of the flower drinks, the deeper one's heart into the mire sinks." It seems that only the strong-willed may use this instrument." -Description: Floral Zither

Good God is there a lot to unpack here. Let's start with the first bold: those of you who were in the community during 2.1 should be fully aware of some of the reactions people had to Kazuha blocking Raiden's Musou no Hitotachi strike with help from Tomo's reawakened vision. Kazuha stans were very happy, while some others were less than pleased with the development. What I think all of us can agree on, however, was our surprise. This is the key to Kazuha's character: he does not wear any part of himself on his sleeve, no matter how friendly he may get with you. He is difficult to get to know deeply, and easy to underestimate if you are too quick to judge. No doubt he has had a lifetime to practice hiding himself, from the time when he was the only heir to a noble clan name, to the time he was freely wandering his homeland. It can even be extended to his performance as a playable character - the shit-talking was rampant when his banner first dropped, and then he became the most-picked character for abyss clears.

The next bold is about the sensation Kazuha had while playing the zither, as if someone else was playing along with him. The Traveler also experienced this while playing the zither: those we have a strong bond with will seem to "appear" alongside us as if we were actually playing a duet with them. Kazuha does not disclose who his "someone(s)" was, but many agree it is implied to be his late friend, indicating his own heart's strong desire to have him by his side again. Notice that this is somewhat in contradiction to his own dialogue earlier in Tuned to the World's Sounds, where he states that "the events of Inazuma are behind him." No doubt the two don't have to be mutually exclusive, but I do think this is yet another example of Kazuha creating emotional distance between himself and the Traveler so that he doesn't have to share his more complicated feelings.

The Liyue adage can be paraphrased with this in mind: the longer we indulge in our desires, the more we regress and fail to keep moving forward. u/spanishrose7 pointed this out when the event first went live: Kazuha gives the zither away because if he doesn't, he'll never be able to let go. Before the Traveler arrived, he played the instrument so much that he broke the strings. Although Kazuha is undoubtedly strong-willed enough that he could rekindle his friend's vision, he is not immune to his heart's desires. Despite his calm demeanor, he is easily driven by his emotions. Kazuha seems to be very aware of how strongly his emotions can affect him, which may be why he tries to keep others out of them and deal with them on his own. The instrument's requirement that its player be strong-willed in this way is not something most humans are capable of in the first place. And Kazuha is only human.

Fated Friends

Kazuha: Pay it no heed...I mean only to say I am certain... that it is by fate, not chance alone, that we should meet... and that gives our encounter meaning.

Though belief in fate is by no means unique to him, Kazuha is definitely one of the more devoted believers of Genshin's cast. From his meeting with the Traveler, to his meeting Tomo, the Resistance, and Beidou, to reawakening the masterless vision, Kazuha attributes all of this fortune to fate's hand. Even after losing Tomo, Kazuha still tells Gorou he firmly believes in fate forever tying people together once they have met.

This is just one aspect of how sentimental Kazuha can be. He usually expresses this part of himself through poetry and appreciation of nature (like all of the Inazuma trees he personally named). Kazuha is certainly adored by those he keeps in his life, but few are able to connect with his more sentimental side. The contradiction here is that Kazuha's sentimental side is how he allows himself to express and feel the importance of the connections he does make with others.

We can see this pretty clearly in his dynamic with Beidou. Kazuha and Beidou's relationship is very close, with both having immense respect for each other. Kazuha has allowed Beidou past one of his many walls of emotional distance, as evidenced from their banter in Autumn Winds, Scarlet Leaves:

Beidou: Occasionally, he opens his mouth and flowers come out instead of words.

Kazuha: With this fine ship and the soft breeze... would it not be romantically irresponsible of me not to acknowledge it with a line or two of poetry?

Beidou: Haha, can't argue with that... Okay then, once The Clash is underway, I'll give you a chance to perform.

Kazuha: Only if the mood takes me, of course. Poetry for poetry's sake tends to lack meaning.

Beidou is obviously not the type to keep someone around that she doesn’t actually like, but it’s evident from her hangout event and Tuned to the World’s Sounds that Kazuha’s more quirky traits such as his “communal wind-listening” class and appreciation for the arts are things she and the crew can’t connect with as much. And don't get me wrong, even if Beidou isn't going to join Kazuha in reciting a verse or listening to nature, she still finds other ways to connect to him when he's in these moods through banter, which he returns. The fact that she still makes that effort with him is evidence enough that she finds these traits endearing.

Do they all still like him? Of course. They'd get rid of him if they didn't. But it doesn't seem like Kazuha can actually share this hobby of his in a meaningful way with anyone else in The Alcor's crew, let alone his other two friends Gorou and Kokomi. Whether Kazuha actually minds this all that much is another story entirely.

The Wanderer and the Shadow

I'm not gonna do a breakdown of all the ways Kazuha and Ei are similar and different because 1) we will be here all night and 2) lots of people have done it before me, and way better than I could. What I do want to discuss though is how Kazuha's relative anonymity among Inazuma characters shows us another side of his contradictions, and positions him very similarly to the former-Kagemusha herself.

It's pretty comical how Kazuha has voice lines for most Inazuma characters with high relevance to the archon quest plot, but exceedingly few of them have voice lines for him. This is in line with the contradictions previously observed - he is guarded, mysterious and unknown to most (except the ever-wise Yoimiya), and carefully observant of others. This is also due to his wanderer lifestyle - several NPC's in Inazuma are familiar with him (Yamada on Mt. Yougou, the guy outside Konda Village, Mr. Okazaki), but none know his name. Mr. Okazaki of Uyuu Restaurant is one of the few if not the only one who encounters Kazuha repeatedly.

Ei, as we know from the archon quest, was Makoto's body-double and stood in for her in battle throughout Inazuma's history. This later caused Ei great pain and loneliness, when she could not share the mourning of her sister because no one could know there had been two gods ruling Inazuma in the first place. Ei could not even be known to her people as Ei, but only as the Raiden Shogun.

Kazuha and Ei are shadows in Inazuma, and both observe their world from the shadows in order to understand it. It is as much a source of their strength as it is a source of their loneliness.

Basically, Kazuha is a cat. He likes people but only on his own terms. Also he has a lot of feelings. So, nothing new here.

I may go back and edit this later, for which I'll provide an edit log down here to track changes/for accountability purposes. Thank you for reading and PLEASE feel free to share any of your own kazuha brainrots, since this post isn't even close to exhaustive!

References

All hangout screenshots are my own

https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/A_Path_Through_the_Storm

https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Follow_the_Wind

https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Tuned_to_the_World%27s_Sounds_(Quest)