An Unexpected Homecoming

Summary: In a not-so-ordinary night in Magimire, Lumina and Silver go on a date, only for the restaurant to be attacked by a sprite—which led to a comical series of reunions.

Timeline: Ghost Chase storyline, sometime after A Miraculous Series of Coincidences.

Characters:

Lumina

The main POV character for this story! Look forward to my girlie again!!!

Silver

The certified aura farmer returns. Except there's another aura farmer in the story later on with... an interesting dynamic with him.

These five show up later in the story in the group call segment. They get a little less spotlight today but they'll keep things going nevertheless.

Adler

he's like a ball of high energy moments and scenes to me

Mordred

he's just watching adler throughout the call

Neb

got brought to rill's and zero's home after the sprite encounter

Zero

probably the first person who goes "yeah this level of coincidence is not normal. are we some sort of main characters"

Rill

he's just chilling in the background and giggling at everyone else

The new characters, may contain heavier story spoilers

Jericho

The second aura farmer and a yearner. He's just happy to see Silver again.

Devon

When she's driving in the story, she just thinks "this is about to be the longest car ride I've been in" listening to Silver+Lumina+Jericho.

Not gonna post the others yet, since they're only mentioned in the story. But you can see their blurbs in Ghost Chase!

Lumina has a date this evening.

She combs and ties her hair, while making sure no parts of her clothing happen to leave a hole before she leaves home. She has been seeing Silver for a few weeks, and she's going out for a dinner with him too. They could go out and have dinner, then maybe they'd visit the night market together... She isn't certain if it'd turn out as smoothly as she wanted, though, so she might as well go with the flow and see what the night brings them.

She'll be meeting up with Silver in front of the Maple Diner, and there he is, in his brown shirt and with no uniform on—a completely different vibe from the man she saw when they first met in the inn.

"You look good today!" Lumina blurts out, anxiously pausing and wondering if she'd somehow come off too strong.

"You too, miss Flamestar."

"Lumina's fine! We've been going out for like what? A month?"

"Four weeks, yes."

"Time sure does fly, huh..."

"It really is like that when you're enjoying yourself..." Silver smiles.

Lumina's heart skips a beat. "Let's... just get inside, then. I'm getting hungry."

As they find the table and wait for the dishes they ordered, Silver seems a little more fidgety than the usual.

"Anything on your mind?" Lumina asks. "You look like you're thinking about something."

"Oh, no, it's just... Don't worry about it."

"Anxious?"

"It's not about you, don't worry."

"Oh, really? I didn't make you feel off or something, right?"

"Mhm. It's just... something else. I don't wish to ruin our mood here."

"Ah, I see... Was it something related to work?"

"Hmm... It's about sprites, so I'd say yes."

"Oh? Any dangerous ones? We could go beat it up together."

"Uh, I'm not on duty today." Silver laughs wryly.

"Haha, I'm just joking around..."

"Well... Have you been following the news of sprite hunters recently?"

"Mm... Yeah. Which one are you thinking of? There's a bunch of them going after the ones like the Breeze from earlier."

"I see... Say, have you heard about the Night Wanderer, by any chance? From two years ago?"

Like that guy who was creeping through the streets and singlehandedly striking down sprites at night, leaving behind traces of his void magic? The one who refused to work with any sprite hunting teams and only gave cryptic answers to the press? "He's real?"

"Well... I've known him personally, yes. Before the whole Night Wanderer's boom in infamy."

"Really? Who's that guy?"

Silver takes a deep breath, as if he's about to reveal an information that changes everything about their relationship. "He was my co-worker, and an old friend..."

Before Silver can tell more about him, their dinner is served. A bit of a treat to indulge both of themselves with, but nothing too expensive.

"Let's dig in first." Silver snaps out of his storytelling mode.

"...Mind telling me a bit more?" Lumina's eyes sparkle with curiosity. "We can continue this talk right after the meal."

"I thought you're already so hungry..."

"It's fine, I'm hungry for the gossip too."

Silver chuckles. "I think it's better if I were to save this up after the meal. I can't leave you hanging in the middle of what I'm going to say next."

"Alllright."

Despite her quirks here and there, Silver doesn't seem to be put off by any of it—which makes tonight feel more like she's going out to have a nice dinner with a good friend, rather than a date to impress—an atmosphere she's been missing from her past relationships. He certainly feels too good to be true at times...

At last, they finish the meal.

Lumina turns to Silver after he pays the bill for both of them. "So... How's this co-worker like?"

"Well, he was..."

A large creature bursts through the door, blowing away the relaxed atmosphere. Its magic energy radiates anxiety and tension through Lumina.

Out of every opportunity for a sprite to break in...

The sprite stands tall in front of an entrance with its four legs, eyeing for its prey, ready to pounce at the tables.

With its presence, the customers begin to swarm at the exit doors. Silver, too, takes Lumina's hand and urges her to get up and leave with him.

The sprite, now eyeing the crowd of fleeing customers, prances towards their direction—only to hit the wall, leaving a damage that makes everyone else flinch and flee.

Silver then calls someone on his phone—likely the sprite emergency number. With the way he anxiously eyes it, and with its strength that leaves Lumina and other customers fearing for their safety, it's definitely not an ordinary sprite.

After the call, Silver casts a large magic circle—enough to draw its attention, and throws a feign attack towards a different side of the restaurant, towards the direction it came from and away from the customers. Like an animal, it chases after his attack, giving the nearby customers more time to flee.

With the other customers making their way towards the exit, Lumina remains next to Silver who's buying more time for the on-duty spritefighters.

A sprite will go after magic, and it would come after Silver next. So Lumina grabs her pocket-sized container for elementals from her bag, called it forth, and let it clean and consume the remaining magic from Silver.

She then sent the elemental flying towards the direction of the sprite, keeping it busy with the elemental.

"Thank you." Silver calmly thanks her, patting his shirt where the elemental just cleaned up.

"How long are they gonna take?"

"It should be within a few minutes... Can you keep the elemental up? I have some snacks for you if you need to—"

"Yeah!" Lumina concentrates on controlling the elemental, making sure that the sprite doesn't swat it to death. From this distance, it sure is tricky trying to gain a finer motion control...

And there goes her luck—with one lapse in her concentration, as she blinks, the elemental is swiftly attacked by the sprite, reducing its form into a small piece of core.

At its death, Lumina instinctively sprints towards the sprite. The core's expensive to get her hands on, she needs it for her work, and she can't afford to buy another one so soon.

She should be fast enough to outrun this beast, right?

Lumina leaps over the table and towards the core, swiftly picking the teeny core laying on the ground and jumping away from the sprite's paws. She ought to make her way back...

Silver, who's already chasing after her, shouts. "Behind you!"

Only for Lumina to get swatted away by the sprite—sending her rolling on the ground.

Fuck, Lumina thinks to herself, as she clenches her fist with the core. She still has it. Never mind, she still has it in her.

Silver summons more feign attacks to draw the sprite away from her, before he rushes to her.

"I—I was trying to get the elemental..." Lumina guiltily shoves the core inside her bag, seeing how panicked Silver looks.

"Are you hurt?!"

"Uh..." The attack did, yeah. But it's just a sting. She's not bleeding, her bone's not broken. It's just... sore.

Silver offers her a hand. "Can you get up?"

Despite some shocks from the attack earlier, Lumina manages to pull herself up. He then holds onto her, helping her walk.

Just as they're about to leave, the sprite eyes the two of them again. With its rapidly approaching direction, Silver braces himself and summons a magic barrier—one enough to cover the two of them.

"...Can you run?" Silver asks, his voice cracking. "Just get out and go home. I'll deal with it myself."

"Are you going to fight it?"

"If they're taking this long... then I'd have to." Right now, Silver only has himself and his own magic to fight with. No other gadgets spritefighters are often seen equipped with. "I'll buy more time for the spritefighters. Just go home. No, go to the hospital. Call a friend. Have them drive you there. Tell them you were hit by the wind sprite in the Maple Diner."

Without his uniform, he looks more like an everyman, rather than someone who should be handling the sprite like this. "...Please don't risk yourself."

Silver remains focused on the barriers, as the sprite relentlessly tries to claw its way to him.

"I'll help anywhere I can," Lumina offers.

"It's alright. You don't need to. I'll be fine."

"But—"

The sprite breaks a hole through Silver's barrier, and Lumina immediately summons an attack blast towards the sprite.

"Wait..." Silver mutters, looking at the sprite.

Lumina remains quiet, anxious of her messing his flow even more.

Silver collects himself. "What's your other magic again? Ash? Try that instead of fire. I'll focus on keeping it away from us."

"On it!"

Silver takes a deep breath and summons more barriers, reinforcing his existing ones and expanding it further. "The core is within its head. Keep striking that part."

Seems like he's now focusing on the defense, leaving Lumina to the offense...

As Lumina relentlessly sends magic attacks at the sprite, she notices various dark purple magic circles forming on the ground, creating an elaborate pattern.

"What the..." Silver, too, also notices it.

Dark chains rise from the purple circles on the ground, holding the sprite in its place with magic.

"A sprite fighter?" Lumina asks.

"This aura..." Silver's voice runs cold, as he turns to the entrance.

As the door opens, the air grows heavy and cold. With a sword in hand, a black-haired man in a dark blue uniform walks inside with a dark aura trailing after him. Lumina has seen this man in the news before, giving cryptic answers to the press.

Ah.

It's really the Night Wanderer himself. Albeit in a different uniform than she remembered.

The Night Wanderer, the swordsman—then leaps—his movements almost like he's flying around the sprite. Each attacks are dense with magic energy, enough to singlehandedly mutate the sprite further—only for the swordsman to manipulate all his magic to cut through it.

The sprite falls in a cold blood, and he gets a small device to absorb and seal the sprite.

With a clap from behind her, that came from a younger brunette sharing the same uniform as him—the purple magic circle patterns beneath gather and flow back into her own device.

"I'm sorry it took us this long... We didn't expect there to be no spritefighter groups already helping this place out..." The brunette bows to Silver and Lumina. "We are only a group of independent sprite hunters, but we hope to lend our help out with the more furious sprites. If you wouldn't mind, we'd like to offer you our business card..."

Silver looks tense. "...How much would we—"

"Oh, we'll contact the restaurant staffs about that. But the sprite itself should be enough of a payment for us. If you wouldn't mind, would you like us to drive you anywhere after this, especially after this attack?"

"Uh... The nearest hospital would be nice..." Lumina weakly smiles, feeling fatigue catching up.

"Yeah. She was attacked earlier... I didn't take any attacks from it." Silver offers Lumina his shoulder to lean on.

"Alright, let's get going, then!"

The brunette then brings Silver, Lumina, then the swordsman in the car. Silver and Lumina are sitting together in the backseats, while the swordsman remains at the passenger's seat.

"It's been a while, Silver," said the swordsman, who doesn't even turn back to look at him.

"What happened to you?" So Silver really knew this man...

"Found a new place to work for, so I'm now more of a sprite hunter rather than a fighter."

"I see. I'm glad you're still doing well, especially after the whole... wanderer thing."

"Haha, yeah. I would've kept up with that if it weren't for her..."

"Her? Your new boss?"

"Mhm. Say," the swordsman turns to the brunette driver, "have you mentioned our group name?"

"Oh, right. We're team Stormchaser, and like what Jericho just said, we're a group of sprite hunters. Though, it's more that we're tracking down... certain sprites. I'm Devon, and not really an official hunter by the way, more of an engineer for those circles you saw earlier. The sprite you just saw earlier came from a family of sprites nicknamed the Gale, which multiplied by the incident at the northern of the country last week and descended from..." Devon comes to a sudden halt, as if she thinks she's been going on a tangent. "Let's say... the one you two were handling was one of the ones we've been looking for."

"I see..." Silver turns to check on Lumina, who's seconds away from dozing off and smiles at her.

"Have you finally found someone?" Jericho turns to Silver.

Silver leaves an awkward silence. "We've been going out for a month."

"I see... I'm glad you're doing well out there too."

"I apologize."

"Oh, no. Don't worry about me." There is a wistful note in Jericho's voice. "I'm fine just pining like this..."

Devon lets out an audible "Huh?", while Lumina turns to stare at Jericho.

The four of them sit in silence for a few seconds.

"You're into him?" Lumina bluntly breaks the silence.

Jericho takes a thoughtful pause, before returning the same sincerity to her. "...I am."

"Yeah, I get you. He's pretty cute."

Silver looks anxiously at her. Devon gasps.

"If you wouldn't mind... I assume you two are like, old friends?" asks Lumina.

"We were friends, yes," Silver replies.

"Were?" Jericho sounds a little sad.

"You've stopped reading my texts. I know you don't use your phone that much, but..."

"Ah, yeah. I did."

"What exactly happened to you?"

"Well, you've already figured out..."

As Jericho dodges Silver's questions, Lumina turns to look at Devon—who looks as if she's caught in the middle of a drama. Devon turns to check on her, and Lumina gives her a thumbs up. She is quite curious about her man's past love life too.

Silver sighs.

"...Are you into men too?" asks Lumina.

"Oh, I have no preference. I simply..." Silver anxiously looks at Jericho.

"He just doesn't think of me that way, don't worry." Jericho chuckles. "I have no plans to steal him."

"So you're gonna just... crush on him from afar or something?"

"If you wouldn't mind."

"Well... As long as Silver himself doesn't get bothered about it, I don't mind."

"I see... Am I a bother to you, Silver?"

"You aren't," Silver answers Jericho, before asking Lumina. "...Are you sure you're not bothered by this?"

"Well, yeah. I'd be surprised if you have no admirers looking like that."

Silver covers his face.

Jericho chuckles. "It's really been a while since I've got to talk about him like this..."

"Aww... Wait. Are you really the Night Wanderer?"

"I am, I was. Just another chapter of a dark time of my life."

"I see..."

"It was until Ms. Darkstorm recruits me to join her sprite hunter team... Surprisingly."

Devon scoffs. "You're the last person I want to hear that from."

Darkstorm, huh... Nothing clicks about that name.

Jericho hands Lumina a business card for the spritehunter team, named team Stormchaser. At the bottom right of the card, it displays the name "Arun Darkstorm" with her numbers.

Once they arrive at the hospital, Silver brings Lumina to have her damages checked up—which thankfully, it was nothing serious. Just some magic cleansing process (from contact with a sprite) and painkillers. Silver then bids a farewell to Jericho and Devon and helps Lumina get back to her home.

At long last, after some bus stations, Silver accompanies Lumina to her apartment and sends her off.

"I'm sorry you have to get into this during our date..."

"Ah, it's fine! It just makes it more unforgettable, if anything." Lumina, now doing much better and finally away from sprites, cheers up. "Are you leaving now? It's still pretty early."

"Well, I'd love to spend more time with you, but..." He looks at the medicine bag she's carrying.

"How about we just hang out at my place instead? You can go home later. I have some games back home if you don't mind those."

"Oh, that'd be great."

As Lumina enters her room, she opens her phone and checks the notifications—only to find hundreds of messages from the group chat Silver made during their first meeting, with five other friends. It should either the members deciding to mess around, or the sprite situation today was really that dire... She then spends a few minutes going through the messages, letting Silver read her texts too (and not really expecting him to be able to catch up with her skimming through the texts).

"Seems like there are sprite attacks in other places too," Lumina summarizes the texts. "Adler and Mordred saw one outside their place—then Rill, Zero, and Neb saw one together..."

Silver grimaces. "It's really this bad today?"

"Everyone's already home, though. Let me just..." Lumina then texts the group chat about her date with Silver, the sprite encounter, and the hospital visit. The moment she mentions the last part, the group chat panics, with everyone asking if she got injured and such. Of course she didn't, but still, it warms her heart to know that people care about her...

All of a sudden, Adler starts a group call, and everyone joins in.

Lumina!!!

Hey there—

Oh my god where do I even get started... Actually, I'm letting Lumina and Silver share about the sprite encounter first. You guys were in the middle of a date, right?

We were.

Oh, right. I haven't told you guys about this sprite hunter that took care of it earlier, right?

Was it a hunter from this... Arun's team?

Yeah!!!

Oh my god...

You guys know about Elias, right? The sprite fighter of Verdant Temple that's been on the news recently? She just drove over to our place and singlehandedly banished the sprite thrice her size and—

Adler!

Mordred, who's talking from the same device and camera as Adler's, pats Adler who just choked on his saliva.

It was so awesome... Like. I didn't expect to see her in person. She even gave me a business card of her team too, and it said she's working with team Stormchaser...

Stormchaser? The one with Arun Darkstorm?

Oh, me too! They even drove us to the hospital after the whole attack, since no spritefighters were showing up... Until they came.

So it was up to you two to fend them off...?

Yeah... Kind of messed up, right? Silver was even off-duty today too...

Say, you guys heard about the Night Wanderer from a few years ago? That one sprite hunter lurking in the woods or something? He's now working under Arun too!

YOU TWO MET HIM?

Yeah!!!

What are the odds you two running into celebrities today...

We ran into... uh. My old friend instead.

Neb speaks from Zero's device.

Ah, that elemental kid, right?

Mhm. I've known her.

What?!

No way...

I haven't talked to her for months, but knowing that she's now working with sprite hunters instead of attending college is... certainly a big news.

Mind telling me more about this friend?

Yeah!

Well...

We both grew up together in our hometown. She's like a year younger than me, so she was like a little sister figure to me. Ever since I moved away to attend college at the Central in past three years, I didn't have much time to catch up with her...

I didn't even realize she had already moved out to find work on her own too.

Damn...

Oh, and she's also working with this sprite hunter. Nelle Sea...something.

Nelle...?

Nelle Seastone. Lumina has known her.

Memories of her own past co-worker return to Lumina like a truck. It's really been a while since Lumina have really thought about her... She heard Nelle is now working with something sprite-related, but a sprite hunter? It really is that Nelle, right?

What's wrong?

Was it Nelle Seastone, or anything like that?

I think? Brown short hair, tall and lanky build, uses water magic.

Lumina's jaw drops. Neb was practically describing her past co-worker... and her past love. They didn't have anything, though, and it's more of one-sided admiration. No wonder why she seemed to feel some sort of kinship with Jericho from earlier.

I... I've heard about her. I've known her.

Oh?

Well... She was a co-worker who resigned like, last year? I didn't know where she went afterwards.

Oh, it's your friend you've talked about before, right?

Yeah...

Rill appears in the same camera as Zero and Neb, holding a bowl of popcorns. Zero, in front of the camera, presses his temple.

Did something happen?

So... We met the exorcist, Elias.

Rill, Zero, and Neb met Neb's old friend and someone who happens to be Lumina's ex co-worker.

Lumina and Silver ran into the Night Wanderer.

Who all happened to work under Arun Darkstorm...

Rill takes a bite of popcorn, Zero has a headache tracking everyone's encounters, and Neb just awkwardly sits next to Zero.

Meanwhile, Adler covers his mouth like a miracle akin to their first meeting is now happening again, whereas Mordred just leaves the camera and throws himself onto the bed behind him.

Silver and Lumina are sitting still too, waiting for what anyone has to say next.

Have you heard about this Arun Darkstorm person, by any chance...?

Nope.

Nothing comes to mind.

Me neither.

Damn, she really is an old news, huh?

Zero takes a deep sigh.

Would you believe me if I said I've personally known her too?

With that, the call erupts with shock, save for Zero who isn't fazed by the reaction, and Rill who's losing his mind over the reactions of Neb and everyone else in the call.

Pfft...

Okay, okay. Calm down. I know there's a lot of drama going on tonight...

How did you know her?

...

Zero takes a thoughtful pause.

You know what? It'd be better if I save this for another day...

Dude?

Goodnight.

Nooo!!!

Zero leaves the call with a sly smile, leaving the rest of the group on a big cliffhanger.

Mordred giggles at the entire situation going down while watching from the bed, while Adler gets comically distraught.

No way he just did that...

He can't keep getting away with this, man...

Right?

Do we have anything else to talk about?

Hmm...

I guess that's all for today.

Aww, not even any spicy news from the hospital?

I mean, I just got knocked over. Nothing too serious. Got some painkillers. That's it.

Well, alright. I guess I won't take your time anymore... See ya! Take care!

Byeee!

As Lumina ends the call, she looks at Silver—who seems to be thinking hard about everything brought up in the call.

"...Wanna play a board game?" Lumina asks.

"Oh, sure."

Despite the sprite attack and other surprises for the night, getting to play some board games with Silver and eventually sending him off is a nice way to wrap up the day...

Lumina makes a mental note to take a painkiller before sleep, before undoing her hair and beginning her own nightly routine.