Unidentified Blue Lightning

Probe 2: Headache

Mai woke up two hours earlier than her normal schedule with a terrible headache tormenting her brain. Her eyes teared up as her cranium pounded like a drum and her fingers wrapped around her head in a feeble attempt to stop the beating. Never in her whole life had she had a headache like this before. It was like someone was drilling into her head, or setting it on fire.

The rest of her body wasn't doing much better. Everything was sore and achy. Just attempting to sit up was difficult, but she did it, albeit at a turtle-like pace. Gripping her head with one hand, Mai moaned and reacted for her cellphone on the nightstand.

5:20 am. It read, and she sighed, carefully lying back down.

Maybe if she could sleep it off.

xXx

The next time she woke up it was to her phone alarm and she was feeling slightly better. The headache was only a mildly painful now and her body was stiff, but it was certainly easier to move.

Mai was grateful for the strangely quick recovery. She couldn't afford to take off from work and she had her classes to worry about. Missing a day at university wasn't something she wanted to do. She already wasn't the greatest student grade-wise, but if she missed a class she would probably end up falling behind. One could say that she was a bit slow to understand things.

Her odd episode bothered her, however. She had never been in a situation where her head hurt to the point of her wanting to cry, at least not that she could remember. Mai couldn't help but wonder if she had gotten sick, but she couldn't think of any kind of sickness that would give her those kind of symptoms and she couldn't remember putting anything unusual into her system.

She felt fine now though, and figured it was probably best to start getting ready for her classes. Which also meant working on late homework.

xXx

When Mai finally left her apartment she found that it had snowed overnight. Which surprised her slightly because it was still about mid fall and snow was something saved for winter. It was pretty cold outside too, which made her wish she had brought her mufflers along.

Burying her face deep into the folds of her scarf, she sped up her walking toward the bus stop two blocks down the road. Mother Nature was working her winter magic early this year. The wind was really nippy and she could clearly see her breath floating from her mouth in clouds.

When she reached her destination, Mai took a seat on the bench, which was a bit empty because of the weather. She figured that people had probably had called in sick, whether they were actually not feeling well or not. She couldn't blame them though, she wished that she could do the same. Everyone deserved a break every now and then, especially in this weather.

Boredom washed over her as she waited for the bus and she found her eyes scanning her surroundings for something interesting to observe. There wasn't really much.

The thin layer of snow covering the ground made the cityscape particularly pretty, and even though it was only slightly sticking together she felt that it was likely that the children in the area would be out after school playing around in it if it didn't melt by then. The mental picture made her smile.

Amidst all the snow, she saw an interesting red headed woman in a black trench coat on the other side of the road. She was stunning with her red lipstick and high heels, though it was hard to tell exactly what she looked like because of the dark shades covering her eyes. From where Mai was sitting she could see the woman leaning against the car on speaking on a phone. She couldn't help but think that she must have been cold with only a lightweight jacket on, but the weather didn't seem to bother her at all.

The young college student couldn't help but wish that she had that kind of tolerance to the cold. If she didn't bundle up properly there was always a good chance she'd catch the sniffles.

Because of the snow, the bus was slightly late getting to the stop but Mai found that she was still able to get to her first class a few minutes before it began. A few other students where in there too, but usually most of them ran in just as it hit time to start class.

"I'm surprised to see you coming in so early, Taniyama-san," was the first thing she heard as she stepped through the classroom doors.

Mai turned to her teacher sitting at his desk and gave him a sheepish smile, "I woke up a little early today."

"I hope this becomes a habit," he hinted and waved a hand over. "Come here for a moment."

Walking over a little nervously, she clasped a hand to her chest. Folklore and the Supernatural was one of her favorite courses, and Lin-sensei was one of her favorite teachers, but like any of the other classes she had first in the day she tended to somehow always end up at least a few minutes late to it. This teacher in particular wasn't as big fan of tardiness and she was often scolded for it… but it wasn't like she tried to be late.

Lin-sensei was a very tall Chinese man, who didn't show much of an expression unless he was annoyed or angry. He was also rumored to have a hatred toward the Japanese, because of the things that were done to the Chinese during WWII when Japan was with the Nazis. Though, it was hard to tell if that was true, or if the students were just using it as an excuse for why he liked to grade everyone's work so hard. Most people, including herself, had taken it as an elective, but unlike her they expected it to be an easy going class and it wasn't anything like that.

"This," he started to explain, holding up an assignment she recognized to be a test, "is very disappointing." He always told her some form of this comment after every test she took and the only reason he bothered to was because she showed the most interest in the subject. Surprising she usually did well on essays, classwork, and homework… but when it came to tests she always fell short of expectations.

Now, usually she would reply to this with an "I know… I'm sorry," but today was a bit different. When Mai looked at the paper, it was with a partially confused expression. Part of her remembered taking it, but for some reason it felt a bit foreign like it was the first time she was seeing it. It wasn't the fact that she hadn't done well on it that had her feeling that way, it was just that it didn't seem right. And then she caught a look at the date printed at the top.

"Is… that right…?" She questioned, taking the test from his hand.

The Chinese man quirked a brow at the change in their routine conversation. "If you questioning my ability to grade—"

She shook her head, "Not that. The date."

Her sensei looked at her as if she had grown three heads. "It is already December, Taniyama-san…"

"December…?" Mai stared at him in confusion, "but December is still two months away."

"No," he corrected, pointing to the calendar on his desk. "December is already here." He eyed her. "Are you feeling well?"

That didn't make any sense… or did it. Just yesterday hadn't iy been the beginning of October? But December? That would explain why there was snow on the ground, she hadn't ever remember it being that cold in fall. Had she gotten her dates mixed up? It wasn't like she could have forgotten the last two months of her life, right? She was just being silly.

But—

"Ah!" Mai clutched the side of her head as the headache from earlier came back ten times over. Staggering, she gripped the desk for support.

Lin-sensei was instantly on his feet, looking at her with as much concern as he would let show on his face. Must have really not looked well in he was worried about her. "Taniyama-san what's—"

She never caught the rest of his sentence before she blacked out, falling into his outstretched arms.

xXx

"I'm sorry that it turned out like this…"

Mai woke up feeling perfectly fine. Though her body was still stiff, she couldn't feel any sign of the headache from earlier. Exhaling, she felt her face heat up as she realized she had fainted in front of both her class and a teacher she very much respected. "Oh Mai…" she reprimanded herself, slapping her forehead with one of her hands.

"Oh good, you're up," a voice said as a blond woman slid back the curtain surrounding the bed she was occupying. It was one of the University's nurses. "I hope the pain medication is helping that headache?"

Nodding, Mai realized that much have been why she felt so much better. She offered to woman a light smile, "Yes, thank you… I can't feel it anymore."

"You're welcome," the nurse chuckled, "But don't thank me, you should thank that teacher of yours. He's the one who carried you in."

Mai frowned in surprised, eyebrows raising, "Lin-sensei did?"

She winked, "Sure did. He's nicer than he looks, don't you think? When you're up to it you should go see him so he knows you're all right… classes ended a little while ago so he's probably free."

She shot up instantly at this, "They did?!"

The nurse help up her hands in warning, "Woah there, be careful now."

The brunette only half listened as she pulled the covers back and slid out of bed. "I've got to get going! I can't believe I slept through all my lectures!" She frantically explained, gathering her things that had been slung over the chair by the bed.

"Are you sure? I'd recommend sitting here for a moment just to make sure everything is alright," the woman explained, looking a bit concerned. "You did just faint after all…"

Mai nodded vigorously, already halfway out the door. "I feel perfectly fine!" She called over her shoulder. "I really need to be going!"

She needed to see her professors before she took to bus to work, hopefully she wouldn't be late for her shift.

"Don't push yourself!" The nurse yelled after her.

"I won't!"

Hehe. Thank you for the lovely reviews and to all my silent readers as well.

Think you guys know where I'm going with this? I'd love to hear your guesses ~