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"Wait, wait," Ash waved her hands in the air. "Back up. How do you know me 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 me like they hated me, this shit just makes me uncomfortable.  Ash thought. 

"We owe you our lives, de-... Savior..." 

Ash sighed.  Just... Just stay quiet or something. 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 metallic, her Savior\'s Weapon remained attached to her body. 

"So," Ash got a little closer, "how did it feel? Fighting with that thing, I mean." 

"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 some 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 me." 

"Same," Kaori added. 

"Alright. We\'ll take these people to the city, then we\'ll head for the alchemist, come 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 somewhere 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 times but Kaori was there to help him out every time. After a while, the sun was starting to fall beyond the horizon when the group came 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 seemed fairly young, with a small frame 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 some 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-time, 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 welcome 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 me rather busy, unfortunately. Do come 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 smell. There were so many different scents in the air, vanilla, raw meat left out on a table, something like soup and honey. Three different large pots were boiling at once, and on a counter to the right side, there was a strange mechanism of sorts. It seemed like a bunch of bottles melted 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 came 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, means she spends most of her time 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 something 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 same 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 metallic 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 me." 

"You were retired before, dumbass. By now, you should know that doesn\'t mean 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 me, is that my friend\'s influence or is there something 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 something 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 something 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 means 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 met Vyl when I was just starting out. We worked together many different times." 

"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 anytime Satsuhiro needed a potion. I believe it was when Satsuhiro finally changed teachers that he came here to meet me 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 someone 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 smells a little nicer, I don\'t know. 

Vyl turned around then, and Ash noticed something 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 me know if there\'s anything you need." 

---

Metsumi

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 Metsumi had arrived earlier. With Opah fast asleep on her lap, Metsumi smiled at Ayami as the woman bowed. 

"I believe it might be time for me to go. I apologize, I really enjoyed meeting you." 

"Are you staying here?" Metsumi 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 Metsumi turned back towards the bar. Opah stirred in her arms and mumbled something. 

"No... Daddy... don\'t fight..." She spoke in her sleep and Metsumi took a shaky breath. 

"Don\'t worry sweetie," Metsumi whispered as she took a final sip of the wine she\'d purchased. "He\'s done.. Thank the gods, he\'s done."