In a room on the second floor, Ghost’s family and friends surround him in his bed. His breath slow but steady, his hands are warm but not warm enough and he is alive but not conscious – he has blacked out from the lightning bolt’s strike. Lighting up a smoke, “He who needs shall receive thus praise and punishment. I guess he needed to rest for a while. Say, Yuki, what is the longest he has slept in the past?”, asks Leo. Sitting on the foot of the bed, “3 days, in November 1872. He has just arrived from Lahti, or what was Lahti. No idea why he slept for so long. It is fine now, though. The emptiness inside him is just filled with incompatible junk. He just needs to adjust and digest that 9MJ. Even so, he would most likely take about the same time to recover”, says Yuki.
“How are you this competent in your appraisal, Yuki?”, asks San. “It is not normal for people to get struck by lightning and survive, let alone if they go into a sleep like his. Isn’t there another way to help him?”, she adds. Bouncing down from the bed, “If you want to help him, do so bearing full responsibility. Even Illia cannot fix his situation. The best anyone could do is to leave him be and return once we get a notice from his children when he arises", says Yuki, heading to towards the door. “You said you would go with us to monitor and help him in unfortunate turn of events. How is this helping?”, says San, picking up Yuki. Sighing out a large and reforming into a child, “You were this small when I last saw you, Cassandra. I can only imagine this much of you caring and knowing Will. Even so, he is just different – he is weak but the strongest at the same time”, transitioning into her normal body, “By that look of yours, I get that you would not leave him here, even though he is in his home. I know you can carry him, and Johann can carry him if you cannot, but I suggest you to leave and focus on your purpose – to get a visa for yourself and Johann”, tells Yuki, in her typical judgmental voice.
A single snap could be heard up in the attic. “Anti!”, says Yuki; the exclamation resonating throughout the room. In the same tone of voice, “More than once, he gave up his life for you. Now, you offer him yours”, she adds, leaving the room with Leo, Johann and an unconscious San suspended up in the air… Li meets up with them outside the door and the group goes to Leo’s place to rest for the day.
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The three sisters tend to him – the one who tended to them when they were in need. Alexandria periodically changes the cold towel placed upon his forehead, sometimes running to change the bucket of water. Alice opens the window, making sure he gets enough fresh air but also, making sure he is warm by lying beside him. Seraphina is absent from the room as she is in the kitchen, making tomato soup. In the past, he also did the same, showing how to treat an unconscious person. “For a hot forehead, a cool towel is best suited”, “For a cold body, a warmth by any means is the savior”, “For any type of illness, enough nutrition and hydration are needed as an absolute”.
Bringing four bowls of soup on a tray up the stairs, Seraphina is in quite a good mood. She is finally going to repay her debt. On one day, about 4 years ago, Seraphina contracted a severe case of the flu. As Alice was away with Yuki and Blanc, and Alex had to manage the floor, Sera was left to Will, who was jobless despite him owning the restaurant. As she was absent from the kitchen, he took over for her and expanded the menu. One of the meals he added was the tomato soup, meant for an easier meal than those of other hardy dishes. Another was the “Black soup”, made by boiling mutton in water. “Through these two, a person is rejuvenated”, he said when he first brought the red and black soups to Sera…
“Why the long face, Li?”, asks Johann, on the walk to Leo’s place. Since they left the Ferne Wiese, Li has not spoken a single word. “It was not your fault that Will went to sleep, Li. Even then, it was not you, was it?”, says Johann, trying to cheer up Li. “He who needs shall receive – that is his way of life. So, do not be so sad, Pyro. If it was you who made him be miserable, it was him who wanted you to do it. It is that that is just different about him”, says Leo, whose light enclose the unconscious San in a shape similar to a casket. Smiling a little, “Wasn’t there any better way to transport Ms. Anna?”, says Li as the casket sways up and down slightly.