Once more, I was suddenly awoken by a loud clap of thunder that sounded way too close for comfort. I jolted awake and was immediately in fight mode. My body was tense as I looked around the room to see what was going on. After a moment to gather my surroundings, I calm myself down and looked over to the resting young friend of Lady Ayaka's.

'How much time had passed since I closed my eyes?' I wondered.

"Thoma!" I hear a familiar voice call out to me which made me look over at the door which swung wide open. "There's been some damage to the side of the house from that lightning strike a moment ago. I'll go take care of it. I came here to ask you to stay with her. Can you do that for me?"

"Are you sure you don't need any help from me?" I asked, becoming alert when I saw her.

"I'll be okay. Just stay by Aranea's side a little while longer." Ayaka assured me. "I plan to use my Vision to seal off the area. It seems like I'm the one for the job after all. So you don't have to worry about me."

"Be careful. This weather's no joke." I said to her, knowing that there was no stopping her.

"Of course. I know I can leave things in your hands." She tells me before shutting the door and the sound of her rushed footsteps became muffled over the wind and rain outside the further she went towards another part of the damaged roof.

The room became quiet again until I heard a strange noise coming from behind me and it made me turn around.

'No... Something's different...' I realized when I saw her.

Moving closer in order to check on Aranea from across the room where I had fallen asleep, it seemed as though she was in the middle of a nightmare. Her expression made it seem as if she was in pain because of it.

"Hey... Hey! Snap out of it!" I tried to shake her shoulders awake to snap her out of it. "It's no use. Why isn't she waking up?"

Another flash of lightning illuminated the room for a moment.

'The storm hasn't calmed down. Just what is going on out there?...'

The thunder that accompanied a new flash of lightning was the loudest of all I've heard so far. At the same time, I suddenly felt a jolt of electricity course through me and make me let go of her shoulders. I fell to the floor on my knees with a strong sudden pain.

"W- What was that just now?!" I tried to catch my breath and looked at the palms of my hand that were slightly burned. "But that's..."

Getting up off the floor, I shook my head and decided to try and wake her up once more.

"Wake up! C'mon! I know you're in there, come back!" I raised my voice, hoping to get her attention as I was shaking her shoulders and I ignored the pain in my hands. "Aranea!"

Feeling another, less intense zapping of electricity in the room, I didn't give up. More thunder and wind let itself be heard from the outside.

To my relief, Aranea finally woke up with a gasp and opened up her eyes in surprise. Letting go of her, she was breathing heavily and coughing slightly as she sat herself up. The sensation of electricity had fortunately died down.

"Are you okay?" I asked her, reaching out to put a hand on her cheek to make her look up at me.

"T- Thoma?" She questioned as she now just realized that I was there. "What are you doing here?... Where am I?"

"You're in the Kamisato Estate. I found you out there and carried you inside. Do you remember what you were doing earlier when you were out there in the storm?" I asked her, letting go of her so she can sit up more properly.

Becoming silent as she tried to recall her last memories, she shook her head after a moment. I hid the burnt palms of my hands away from her, the initial sting from the pain becoming less noticeable the more I talked with her.

"No. I don't know what happened. I can't seem to..." She said as she raised a hand up to her forehead where she had hit her head. "The last thing was... A bright light, feeling very hot, then cold, and now I'm here."

"A bright light? Is it possible that you were hit by lightning?" I guessed, hoping this wasn't the case. "It took you so long to wake up, and we haven't been able to call in a doctor for you."

"We?" She asked me.

"Lady Ayaka is here as well taking care of some of the damage to roof sustained earlier. Lord Ayato isn't home yet. He's still out, and I don't expect him to be home tonight. I took over the watch for you, in case you woke up... I was- I- I mean that Lady Ayaka was really worried about you, you know." I corrected myself when I heard what I was about to say.

"I'm sorry..." She said, breaking eye contact with me and grip her fists tightly.

Her sudden apology caught me off guard.

"What are you apologizing for?" I had to ask her.

"For causing so many problems for you and her both." She answered. "I ended up making a lot of people worry over me..."

"Hey, we don't think you've been trouble. We're here to help." I said with my usual grin in an attempt to assure her.

"...Thank you, Thoma." She said, making eye contact with me once more. "It's strange though."

"What is?"

"Of all the times I've stopped by to visit, this is probably the longest conversation I've had with you."

"Oh, y- yeah." I cleared my throat.

'So she's thought about that too...' Since she brought that up first, my mind wandered back to how I held her when I brought her here inside to Lady Ayaka. 'It wasn't the time or place, but someone like her is...'

Shaking my head to clear those thoughts, I knew for sure that my cheeks had began to burn red.

"Thoma?" She asked me, taking me out of my train of thoughts.

"Yeah?" I wondered what she was going to say next, if she had noticed how nervous she made me just now.

"Thank you." She said in the most genuine voice I've ever heard from her.

"No problem." I said quickly. "Uh, Aranea, h- how are you feeling?" I wanted to change the topic back to her.

"Well, even though I can't remember what it was about, it's like I was having a very long dream and-"

Before she could finish her sentence, a loud boom of thunder shook the walls. From how sudden it was, she had flinched and instinctively reached out to grab me. She was close to me again, and I tried to comfort her the best I could as my heart began to race.

'This feeling... Isn't from the thunder...' I thought to myself as I put a hand on her back to calm her down.

When she realized that she held on to me, she immediately moved away from me and held her hands up to her face. This couldn't hide the deep color of red on her face.

"Thoma! I'm so sorry!" She apologized.

"It's okay." I said, trying to look away and hide my own reddened cheeks.

When she moved back, we heard a sudden thud of something hit the ground. The noise caught the attention of the both of us. We immediately looked over towards the floor where the source of the mysterious sound came from. What I saw shocked me more than anything when I realized what I was looking at.

Slowly reaching towards it, her hand was visibly trembling. She raised it at eye level.

"But that's impossible!"

Twitch: Enrita11

September 11th, 2023