[The Present]
The world was empty.
I could not see or sense a single living being for thousands and thousands of miles, and even as I spread my senses towards the very edges of the world, I found nothing.
… I found no one.
"What in the world happened here?" I mumbled, my wide eyes twitching as I stared at my comrades.
They were speechless and surprised all the same—meeting the world we called ours, but with no one we recognized.
"Maybe… this isn't our world?" Edward tried to blurt out, but it seemed he was trying hard to convince himself more than the rest of us.
"The coordinates weren't messed up. They haven't failed before." Kuzon sharply responded, his face slowly melting into anger. "Plus, there's no way you can't sense it, right? The resonating feeling you have here…"
Kuzon was right.
There was no doubt that this was indeed our planet. Other than the details around us, like the reception of the wedding—the tons of tables, chairs, and all manner of party confetti scattered around, there were still leftover signs of our presence here.
It had to be our world!
"What do you propose could have happened, then?" Aloe was the next to speak, and her tone was surprisingly calm.
In fact, she was the calmest of all five of us.
"I'm not sure. We might be getting ahead of ourselves a little, so I propose we calm down and rationally deal with this." I responded.
It certainly wasn't easy for me to get my emotions in check, but I did so anyway. Right now, Aloe's attitude was the standard, and panicking would solve nothing.
"We should calmly assess the situation in order to develop an accurate hypothesis about what could have happe—"
"C-Calmly…?" A chilling voice suddenly echoed behind, sending a somewhat prickly sensation especially to the base of my neck.
The voice was familiar, yet for some reason, it felt different.
"... How can I be calm…?" I could feel the atmosphere grow dense with enegy, and it seemed all that energy was converging in a single position.
'A-ah…' My neck creaked as I turned behind me to see the face of the one who was doing all of this.
"W-where is he…?"
Her dark brown hair seemed to be covering her face, like wretched rags wrapped around darkness. Her two eyes glowed a cetain purple color, and I could sense something deep and dark swirling within her.
"I-I held it in for so long, b-but… I can't do it any longer…" The whispers she made, like grating metal, seemed to cause everything around her to grow distorted.
The very energy around her was getting out of control.
"Where…" Steam exited her lips, and it seemed everyone slowly created distance from her as she glared at us.
One look at Ciara's face told me she wasn't the same any longer.
"... WHERE IS JERRY?!"
~BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!~
Everything around her instantly shattered, blown away by the density of her energy alone.
'Is this Aether? She's already learned to control it? That's quick!' My eyes widened as I found rapid swirls of energy flowing around her.
They howled and danced, causing her to begin to levitate as her hair ascended in a maddened frenzy.
Edward, Aloe, and Kuzon appeared surprised by Ciara's actions, but their reactions to it varied a little.
Kuzon, for one, didn't seem to care about her mental breakdown. He was just in thought, most likely trying to analyze what happened.
Aloe and Edward glanced at me for what to do about it, since they probably thought knocking her out was his best bet, but also didn't want to hurt her.
With a huff, I raised my hand to tell them to back off.
'I'll do it myself.'
"WHERE IS JERRY?!" She repeated, as if expecting the rest of us to have the answers to her question.
'We're meant to remain calm and deliberate, yet you just had to go berserk at the worst time.' I nearly sighed while rolling my eyes.
Ciara was a weirdo who had feelings for Jerry. I was able to find that out not too long ago. However, that didn't excuse her outright brazen behaviour.
She wasn't the only one who couldn't find the one they loved here.
'Spellcraft…'
In an instant, the Aether surrounding Ciara vanished, causing her to descend to the ground.
I swiftly appeared before her, realizing she could simply lash out at the rest of us if I didn't take extra precautions in this rage moment she was experiencing.
"Ciara… calm yourself."
Using [Temperance] to stabilize her emotions, I also added [The Fool] and [Judgment] to offer a soothing memory and warp her mind so that she would have no reason to go crazy on us.
"Jerry is fine. He's just lost. We have to find him… and we need to be calm about it." Even with all three Arcanas in effect, I maintained a soothing tone.
It felt like I was partially talking to myself. The others were also watching, so I was talking to them as well.
"We need each other. We need you to find them. So please… come back to us."
That seemed to be the last straw to end the meltdown.
Ciara's purple eyes slowly dimmed, returning to their oceanic blue color. The energy crackling around her, and the energy veins that surrounded her slowly dissipated.
In no time, she was back to normal.
"A-ah… I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry." Ciara finally broke down, her eyes slowly getting filled with tears.
"It's fine, Ciara. We miss them too…" I smiled, drawing closer to her to give her a warm hug.
At this point, we all needed some kind of warmth to go through this.
"Um… no, thanks. Thank you for your help, but…"
Ciara took a couple of steps back, and her evasive measure couldn't be clearer to me.
"Haha! Yeah, sure… of course."
It was my fault for trying to be nice.
"Well, it is good to have you back."
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[A/N]
I hope you enjoyed the read.
Ciara being herself, as usual. And then there's Kuzon lost in his own bubble.
I wonder what could have happened too
