Heat Lighting [Scaramouche | Reader]

13 - kitchen argument

Darling, I gotta talk to you

About the things you've been putting me through, now

I gotta talk to you

I gotta be explained to, hey, yeah

-Deeply—bôa-0:00

—

What, the fuck.

The sliding door to a traditional Inazuma style home greeted us as I followed Scaramouche through the night shrouded path. Overgrown foliage and tree roots covered the stone inset into the ground. I almost tripped on a particularly large root while trying to keep up with the fast pace of the man in front of me. In the far distance I could just make out the purple haze of Serai Island's electric storm. The ocean clearly separated us from it, but I didn't recognize any of the topography on island that we were walking through. There were Naku Weeds scattered here and there but they were few and far between which indicated that we were far from the Narukami, Kannazuka, and Yashiori regions of Inazuma.

The door rolled open with a swift motion by Scaramouche and the small common quarters of a country home spread out when an oil lamp was lit in the corner with the small use of electricity from his Vision. Yet, what surprised me with my observation of the man, there was no Electro Vision attached to any part of his clothing. The essential elemental harnessing accessory was absent from his physique as I scanned for it. The realization shocked me: his immense power really wasn't natural. My mind thought back to what Yae Miko said when I first met her.

"He is a product of the Electro Archon."

I mentally shuddered and prepared for the worst, but kept my eyes steady on Scaramouche when I stepped through the door of the house. It was silent inside and the open door allowed for the ambient nature to let its noises invade the room. Scaramouche didn't look at me.

"Shut the door before a rifthound finds its way in."

His voice cut the air and I turned around to shut the door without complaint, no question of what a rifthound might be. I was so far from home in my own country that even the creatures here were unfamiliar. When the door slid shut nature was silenced from the home and we were left in the small room with only each other.

I decided to test the waters with the man in front of me and asked, "Where are we?"

"Tsurumi," Scaramouche curtly replied as he slid open the door to another room.

I wracked my brain for a place called 'Tsurumi' in Inazuma, but came up with nothing. I frowned and followed him again to query for more information.

"Where?"

Another door audibly slid open in the darkness and the ruffling of fabric could be heard. It almost made me nostalgic for the uniform project I left on Watatsumi. I could feel myself visibly sadden at the thought of Kokomi and Nozomi. The two women were probably worried sick. Scaramouche turned around and looked at me, eyes dull and unfeeling. I can caught sight of his burned wrist but even the guilt that bubbled into my throat couldn't get me to comment on it.

"Tsurumi. The island south of both Kannazuka and Yashiori and west of Serai. Deserted by all means of the word to the point that even the Adventurers' Guild stays away from it."

Which meant we were all alone. He had transported us to the island through the use of some kind of elemental harnessing. When we landed from what felt like teleportation magic, I snatched my arm from the man and puked in a bush from the nauseating experience. He simply scrunched his nose and started to walk away. His bipolar attitude about anything and everything I did had started to grind my gears at that point.