'Now that it was just the two of us here, I don't know what else to talk to her about.' I glanced over to Aranea who was walking at a slower pace than I was, lost in her thoughts. 'I wonder what's going through her mind right now after such a heavy conversation with everyone this morning like that...'

The sun was still high in the sky, and not a single cloud could be seen. No matter how beautiful the weather was, I was feeling a storm of emotions in my own head. When I glanced back over to her, the expression she wore was hard to read.

"Aranea?" I spoke up first, but her attention was elsewhere and she stopped walking which made me do the same.

In that moment, a beautiful smile grew on her face. Her eyes immediately lit up and I couldn't look away from her.

"Look! Thoma, they're okay!" She suddenly reached out and pulled on my arm so I can see what she was looking at.

My eyes landed on a pair of old dogs that wagged their tails when they approached her.

"D- do you know these dogs?" I asked after she let me go to kneel down to pet them.

"I've been so worried about them! You see, I've been feeding them since they were young. I haven't seen them since the storm so I had no idea what happened to them." She said as she knelt down and they ran towards her.

'Watching her like this, that smile... I want to see it more often.'

Automatically reaching over to the back of my waist, I realized the pouch I usually wear was gone and sighed.

"What's wrong?" Aranea asked me when she noticed the disappointment on my face.

"Oh, it's nothing." I began to say but she seemed to know there was something on my mind. "Well, you see, I always keep a small pouch for treats in case I ever ran into a stray when I'm out in the city. It's just that I haven't been able to buy a replacement ever since my old one got damaged in that storm."

"You like dogs too?" Aranea asked me, excited to hear this.

"Of course!" I see the way her face glows when she hears this. "I'll have to get a new one soon... So we could feed some treats to them... Together?" I half asked, wondering what she would say to that.

'Wanting to spend more time with you, just like this, when it's only the two of us...'

"I'd really like that!" She tells me with a big grin which made me happy to hear. "I have to go for now. I'll come see you guys with some food later on. Be good and stay out of trouble." She tells the dogs before standing up and walking up to me.

Aranea walked past me and I followed after her.

"I know it might seem weird, but I kind of relate to being a stray." Aranea said, looking up at the sky

"What do you mean?" I wondered.

"This is something that I've never told Ayaka but, I'm not originally from Inazuma. So sometimes I feel like I don't exactly fit in, that I've made it this far from the kindness of citizens from another land. The fact that I felt so lost for a while is what stands out the most I guess. If that makes sense?"

"What makes you say that?" I paused for a moment and realized what she revealed. "Hold on, I never knew you weren't from here either. What nation are you from?"

"It's something that's been on my mind, but more intense lately since I've met that doctor... They're from Liyue, worked with someone named Baizhu, and ended up here to study our medicine. Then they got stuck here because of the the Sakoku Decree... I relate because I was born in Natlan."

"That's sad to hear, a lot of people were affected." I recalled the difficult times under that rule. "Natlan is so far away, I haven't met that many people from there."

"Yeah, even though the doctor was stuck longer than they planned, they learned a lot more about medicine. So I suppose that's a positive thing. Being in a nation where you aren't familiar with anyone or anything forces a person to grow up fast."

I stopped walking for a moment and this made Aranea do the same and turn to face me.

"Wait... You're not telling me this because... Are you planning on leaving Inazuma because the Sakoku Decree was lifted?" I asked.

"Thoma..." Arenea started with and broke eye contact with me which made my heart sank.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"It's true?" I asked in a low voice.

"Yes. I did plan to." She admitted.

'I don't want her to go... I have to tell her...'

"I guess Lady Ayaka doesn't know about this either?" Was all I could ask.

"She doesn't know, because-"

Aranea was cut off mid sentence when a voice called out to her in order to get her attention.

"Hey! You there, girl! Is it real?!" A man called out to Aranea, pointing towards her.

More people stopped to look and see what was going on. In no time, a few others had begun to surround the two of us. The first person walked right up to her before she understood what was going on.

"That's the real deal isn't it?!" The man asked once more.

"What are you talking about?" I asked him first.

"The Vision! It's an Electro Vision!" The man exclaimed loud enough for the crowd to overhear and soon caught all of their interest as well.

"You never had one before!"

"How did you get it?" A person waved their hands wildly in the air, desperate to be seen first.

"Can you help me get one too?!"

"Let me buy it off of you!" A bag of mora was forcefully brought forward in her face.

"The rumors were true?!"

Several of the people began to inch closer and closer to her and push me back away from her.

"I couldn't get any answers when I went to the Grand Narukami Shrine yesterday. Will you tell me what you know about this strange phenomenon on the return of Electro Visions?"

I noticed what some of them were wearing, the scholars of the Akademiya have found her.

"Aranea!" I reached over to her, who was trying to back off from the excited people, but she was just out of reach from me.

"Thoma!" Her eyes met mine and I saw the fear in them when she didn't see a way out.

All eyes were on her and she was visibly uncomfortable. Seeing her like this made me try and force my way back into the center of the group that surrounded her.

One person had reached out to grab on to her wrist and pull her their way to try and talk with her.

"Let go of me!" She said as she tried to yank her hand back from them.

In that moment, I got close enough to her and separated the man who was holding on to her. With my other hand I pushed the bag of mora away from her.

"Thoma!" Aranea said in surprise when I reached her.

"She's not interested in selling it." I said with a short nod his way with a warning tone for him to back off from her. "Excuse us." I took her free hand in my own and started to guide her out of the way of the people surrounding us to somewhere they won't bother her.

As we kept walking, she didn't say anything at first.

After making some distance between us and the crowd of people who didn't follow us, I realized I was still holding her hand in mine and stopped abruptly

"S- Sorry! I hadn't realized..." I said as I quickly pulled my hand away from hers.

"No, it's okay." She said. "Thank you for that."

Things became quiet between the two of us.

'I want to know but I don't have any idea how to ask her to stay here in Inazuma... Here with me...'

"I know how... Intense, if that's the right word, things have been in Inazuma lately. How different things will be from now on since the Sakoku Decree has been lifted and..." She started off with but paused for a moment before continuing. "Since the Electro Visions have returned... I've been thinking tha-"

"I know what you're going to say, but a lot of people here wouldn't want you to go." I cut her off.

My sudden outburst surprised her and she was left speechless so I continued.

"Many won't be happy with the fact that you're not here in Inazuma anymore." I said, but even though they were my own words, it didn't sound right. It doesn't make it clear that I'm the one that doesn't want her to leave.

'It's me that wants you to stay the most...'

Aranea didn't say anything right away, and I didn't know what more I could say to convince her to stay other than...

'Will I be able to tell her how I feel? Should I? Is it wrong of me to tell her everything if she already decided that she wasn't going to stay here?'

Reaching out to take my hand, the sudden contact took me out of my thoughts. I let out a breath I didn't know that I was holding.

"Thoma." She said, making direct eye contact. "I should've worded what I was going to tell you earlier a lot more clearly. That is, nobody was supposed to know that I had planned to go back to Natlan. Not even my closest friend Ayaka. I was still indecisive about it, that's why. Honestly... It was recent events that have made me reconsider."

"Recent events? But isn't the Sakoku Decree what stopped you from leaving?"

"At first it was. And... It's not the fact that I obtained a Vision that's made me change my mind to stay." She said which only confused me further.

"Then what is?" I questioned.

"I'm confident about staying now because..." She trailed off before saying what it is she wanted.

"Aranea?"

She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, looking back up at me.

"I'm looking right at him." She answered.

Twitch: Enrita11

October 23rd, 2023