"Wait, wait," Ash waved her hands in the air. "Back up. How do you know again?"
By now, the civilians had been escorted out of the fort and were coming along with the group back to Onyx. Along the way, they continued to offer their thanks to the girls, but one thing had remained on Ash's mind.
"Your defense of Sapphire!" One woman stated. "The story has spread like wildfire."
"She's right," a middle-aged man replied. "The demon who fought off the demons. We heard about it in the papers. We... I, at least, didn't think it was true, but to see this with my own eyes... I'm amazed."
Ash was surprised. She hadn't thought anyone would talk much about her, let alone spread the tales of her feats across the cities. Apparently, though, that had been exactly what happened. These gazes, the reverence in the eyes of these people they'd just saved, it was strange.
I liked it better when they looked at like they hated , this shit just makes uncomfortable. Ash thought.
"We owe you our lives, de-... Savior..."
Ash sighed. Just... Just stay quiet or sothing. Fuck, this is weird.
Disregarding them for a second though, Ash turned towards Kaori. She caught the blonde looking down at her arm, gold and tallic, her Savior's Weapon remained attached to her body.
"So," Ash got a little closer, "how did it feel? Fighting with that thing, I an."
"Strange," Kaori admitted. "It's... Imagine having an arm that you can only barely control. That's sort of what this feels like. It's very stiff."
"I think you just need so practice," Keiko said, from Kaori's right. "I can help you out with that."
"Yeah," Kaori nodded. "Guess so."
"Alright, so," Satsuhiro said, "as soon as we drop them off, we could go pay the alchemist a visit. If you're tired though, we can put that off for tomorrow. So, what do you think?"
"..." Ash thought about that for a second, but Keiko answered first.
"It would be good to get that out of the way, right? We do need to talk to Eliza about Yumi's whole situation and head back there to see if we can get any training in. Especially since Kaori's got this new arm."
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "Makes sense to ."
"Sa," Kaori added.
"Alright. We'll take these people to the city, then we'll head for the alchemist, co back and call it a day."
With that, the group continued on the road back to Onyx, the praises of the civilians they'd saved trailing Ash the whole way there.
When they reached the gates, a few guards took the citizens and one woman turned towards Ash.
"We'll tell everyone about this!" She called out. "Thank you!"
Please, please don't. Ash sighed.
The guards led them sowhere else and Satsuhiro pointed at the bamboo to the south.
"We'll have to go off the road for this. I might need a bit of help getting through the dirt at a few points, because, well," he tapped his crutch against the ground.
"I've got you," Kaori said with a smile.
"Thanks. Let's get moving."
It was in the exact opposite direction from the shrine. South of the city, past a collection of bamboo trees that stood in front of them like a maze made of tall green statues. Satsuhiro stumbled a few tis but Kaori was there to help him out every ti. After a while, the sun was starting to fall beyond the horizon when the group ca across a section of the forest that was carved out.
A small dirt road from this point led to a hut of sorts, where smoke was currently coming from one of the windows. The group approached it and Satsuhiro cleared his throat as he walked up to knock on the wooden door.
Before he reached it though, it opened.
The person who walked out was strange, to say the least. She had short green hair and her eyes were covered in a black shadow. She seed fairly young, with a small fra and thin, nearly malnourished-looking body. She was shorter than Ash by quite a bit as well, almost two heads so.
Beyond that, she was naked. Well, mostly naked. she had a line of strung-together leaves covering her groin and waist, but nothing else. Her skin was covered in a mix of sweat and dirt, with a mark of so sort on her chest, depicting a circle with a cross in it.
Ash looked at her level.
Level 20
MP: 300/300
"Satsuhiro?" She asked, and her voice was the raspiest Ash had ever heard. She'd heard old, long-ti, smokers on the streets of Jade with clearer voices than this. "This is quite the surprise."
"Vyl," Satsuhiro bowed. "Sorry to interrupt, but we were in the area and I figured we'd stop by."
"Hm..." She looked down at where his missing leg was. Then she looked back up, and at the girls behind him. Ash crossed her arms, Kaori greeted her with a smile and a wave, while Keiko simply bowed as Satsuhiro had. "I welco the company, though I do wonder if you're here to add more work to my to-do list."
"No, no. Just visiting." Satsuhiro sounded different. There was a certain respect in his tone as he spoke to Vyl that Ash hadn't really heard from him before.
"I see. The war has kept rather busy, unfortunately. Do co in though," she said, swinging the door wide open and walking into the hut. Satsuhiro gestured back and they all went in.
The first thing Ash noticed was the sll. There were so many different scents in the air, vanilla, raw at left out on a table, sothing like soup and honey. Three different large pots were boiling at once, and on a counter to the right side, there was a strange chanism of sorts. It seed like a bunch of bottles lted together.
Vyl walked over to one of the pots and extended a hand towards it.
"Let the cold soothe your heart." She said, and a spray of blue mist ca out from her hand, putting out the fire.
"Girls," Satsuhiro said, turning towards them. "This is Vyl. She's a freelance alchemist, works for whoever pays her which, generally, ans she spends most of her ti making potions for the different armies. Vyl, these two are Kaori and Ash, Saviors, and that's Keiko, their weapons trainer."
Vyl turned towards them, casting an analytical look over each one, but her eyes remained on Kaori. She walked towards the blonde, humming sothing to herself as she looked into her eyes.
"You're the one who ingested the Red Tear, right?" She asked.
"What?" Kaori asked. "H-How do you know?"
"After the fact, I read up on the event. A blonde, rookie, kind-eyed Savior who was manipulated by the head of Jade's biggest church and then later went on to kill him. It isn't hard to put two and two together. And you," Vyl turned towards Ash, with the sa scanning expression. "The half-demon Savior. Satsuhiro," she turned towards him, "what the hell did you get yourself into?"
"I wouldn't say I got myself into this," Satsuhiro replied, "it's more like this whole thing was thrown on my lap. But, I think we've made the best of it."
Vyl looked at his missing leg and Kaori's tallic arm.
"Evidently," she muttered. Then, she sighed and put a hand on top of Satsuhiro's head. The man turned his eyes down as Vyl looked at him. "Keep yourself safe. After what happened with Maggie, Takomaro, and Ren... I'd hate for this war to claim another friend of mine."
"I know," Satsuhiro responded. "I'm retired now though, so you don't have to worry about ."
"You were retired before, dumbass. By now, you should know that doesn't an anything," Vyl said and Ash found herself chuckling at that.
That laugh made Vyl's eyes go back to her.
"... Level 38 already?" Vyl asked. "I see you've been hard at work. Tell , is that my friend's influence or is there sothing else motivating you?"
Ash raised a brow and thought about how to respond to that question. She briefly snuck a glance at Kaori and Keiko and was going to say sothing about wanting to retire and enjoy life with a house full of "fuck you" money, but Vyl spoke before she could do that.
"I see," Vyl tilted her head. "Your group has a way of saying a million words with just a few looks. It's sothing I normally see in people far older. It is surprising."
Vyl walked over to a table where she grabbed a wooden cup and brought it over to Satsuhiro. The man took it and sipped from it without a word.
"It's bitter."
"Good," Vyl replied. "That ans it's well made. Keep drinking, it calms the nerves."
Ash shook her head.
"Wait, so, how do you know each other?" Ash asked. They sounded far closer than she'd expected.
"I t Vyl when I was just starting out. We worked together many different tis."
"Hmph," Vyl huffed. "Back when you were being tutored by that insufferable hag. Yes," Vyl walked back and handed out similar cups to each of the girls. "At first, it was mostly just exchanging letters anyti Satsuhiro needed a potion. I believe it was when Satsuhiro finally changed teachers that he ca here to et in person."
"How long have you been living here for?" Kaori asked.
"Long enough, and yet I will continue to do so," Vyl replied vaguely. "I am not soone who enjoys the walls and streets of the cities. I'd rather just stay out here."
In a way, she was living exactly the life Ash wanted, and yet, looking around, Ash felt strange about it. Hopefully, wherever I end up slls a little nicer, I don't know.
Vyl turned around then, and Ash noticed sothing she hadn't before. Across her back were a few different, long and thin scars drawn over her body. Her mouth opened to ask about it, but Satsuhiro stopped her.
"Maybe wait a little," he whispered. "You only just got here."
Then, Vyl turned towards them and said:
"On account of you being trained under my dear friend, I will honor any requests you make on this day. Let know if there's anything you need."
---
tsumi
After a while, the woman had gotten up from her seat. It was getting late, and by now, the inn had taken a completely different atmosphere from what it had when tsumi had arrived earlier. With Opah fast asleep on her lap, tsumi smiled at Ayami as the woman bowed.
"I believe it might be ti for to go. I apologize, I really enjoyed eting you."
"Are you staying here?" tsumi asked.
"Yes, are you?" Ayami asked in return.
"Mhm. Maybe we'll talk again then?"
"I hope so," Ayami chuckled. "Have a wonderful night." Then, the woman walked away and tsumi turned back towards the bar. Opah stirred in her arms and mumbled sothing.
"No... Daddy... don't fight..." She spoke in her sleep and tsumi took a shaky breath.
"Don't worry sweetie," tsumi whispered as she took a final sip of the wine she'd purchased. "He's done.. Thank the gods, he's done."
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