Hello, I think it has been a while since my last update in here. For some months I had troubles trying to write again, I had tried a lot of times but I really was unable, so that's why you didn't saw any updates from me. This is a little thing that I wrote from BanG Dream!, which is currently my main fandom, if you are here for LWA well... I'm... Sorry. I do still want to write for that fandom tho, but it may take a little more time for me to write something new. Anyway, if you didn't followed me from back then, then I'm sorry for this long introduction.
AN: Neither BanG Dream! nor the background image of the cover are mine, the second one was made by DeviantArt user SweetLittleVampire.
Hazawa Tsugumi took a deep breath. 'I'm going to be fine, I'm going to be fine, I'm going to be fine.' She repeated over and over to calm herself down.
Tsugumi had dedicated her life to help those in need, that was the reason she decided to became a priestess and learned how to make medicine. While she didn't have confidence in her own skills, she had already helped a lot of people in the past. That idea had helped her a lot to continue, but this time she was required to do something she had never done before: Getting the ingredients herself.
The forest in which she needed to search for this plant wasn't particularly dangerous, but the thought of leaving her town for the first time was scary by itself.
'I'm going to be fine.' She said once again as she stared at the town's exit. 'I'm going to be fine.' She repeated a final time, determined to go.
"You are… Hazawa-san, am I correct?" When suddenly a voice from behind her scared the priestess, causing her to jump up in surprise.
Tsugumi turned back and saw a knight with a silver armor and blue clothes underneath, giving her an aura of power that only one person in the town had.
"Y-yes! And you are Hikawa-san, right?" She asked with a smile, trying to hide her confusion as to why the head of the knights was talking to her.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you." Sayo said in an unreadable tone. "I was just wondering why you were heading out, if you don't mind me asking."
"Well…" Tsugumi tried, but looking at the knight's face made her even more nervous, so she decided to look somewhere else instead. "A precious friend of mine got sick a day ago, it's not lethal but without medicine she would need to be in bed for some time…" She said with a sad smile. "I want her to be well, so I need to get this herb for her."
"I see. Do you need me to gather it for you?" Sayo said without hesitation, and her eagerness to help was something that impressed the priestess.
"No, no! It's fine! Besides, I don't want to burden someone as busy as you!" Tsugumi quickly shook the idea off, not only from the conversation but from her own thoughts as well. This was something she had to do herself.
"It is not a problem; I was already heading south." The knight confessed with a concerned look. "One of the town folks asked me to find his dog, who got lost in a nearby forest."
The brunette was surprised once again. She had heard that Hikawa Sayo, the head of the knights, was the kind of person who would complete even the most mundane tasks she was asked to, but only now Tsugumi completely believed this was the case. She was puzzled about the nature of the person in front of her.
"Hazawa-san?" Sayo's words made Tsugumi remember that she hadn't answered yet.
"Ah! Y-yes! No! I mean…" The priestess trailed off before taking a deep breath to finish her sentence. "This herb is hard to recognize, so I have to go myself." She said as resolved as she could be.
"In that case, allow me to escort you." Sayo gave her a short smile, but quickly enough her expression became serious again. "It is dangerous to travel alone, and we are heading to the same direction."
"Okay!" Tsugumi said with a gentle smile. While she didn't know the knight very well, the idea of being accompanied by someone else eased her worries. She was going to be fine.
Hazawa Tsugumi was not fine at all. At first, she tried to start a conversation asking Sayo where was she heading. As a result, she discovered that they were actually heading to the same forest. Until now, Tsugumi was unsure about what to do, but this helped her to make her mind, she was going to help Sayo to find the missing dog.
After that, Tsugumi tried to talk about something else, but then two hours of walking have passed by as they traversed the beautiful southern field, and she was still unable to find another topic. She tried over and over to create small talk, commenting about the nice weather they were having or about the flowers at the sides of the road. However, this didn't help her very much as all those conversations didn't last long enough for Tsugumi to think on anything else to say.
After minutes that felt a lot more like hours to Tsugumi, they finally reached the forest, and once they entered it they started to search. Tsugumi's eyes shifted around the place, trying to look for both the herbs she needed and the dog. And only then a puzzling thought appeared on her mind.
"Sayo-san, I have a question." Tsugumi said as she was glad that she finally found something to talk about.
"What is it, Hazawa-san?" Sayo said without lowering her guard, only then Tsugumi realized how serious the knight was taking the role of escorting her.
"How did the dog got lost here…?" The priestess asked and saw how the other girl's expression immediately turned into confusion.
"I actually don't know… I have been wondering that myself since I was asked to search for him." Tsugumi found Sayo's answer unexpected. She couldn't help herself from finding it funny, as she had thought that someone who seemed as prepared as her would have asked something like that.
"Oh well, we just need to find him and bring him to his owner!" She tried to be cheerful about it, even though she knew it could take a while, she felt as she needed to stay positive.
"Of course, he is very precious to him, he had that dog for as long as he can remember." Sayo's distressed tone picked up Tsugumi's curiosity.
"Could it be…" She wondered. "Sayo-san, do you like dogs?"
"Y-yes… I love dogs…" The knight answered with a warm smile as her face reddened a little. Tsugumi found this adorable, but just before she could answer Sayo spoke again. "I found him!" She pointed out to a brown dog in the distance, close to the river.
"Let's go!" Tsugumi said before she started to walk quickly in his direction, which she just as swiftly found out how much of a bad idea that was. Once the dog saw her, he started to run in another direction.
"I was about to warn you, but I wasn't fast enough, I am sorry." Sayo apologized and hurried to chase after the dog. Tsugumi felt as she was the one who should have apologized instead, but she quickly followed as she knew there wasn't time for that.
After only some minutes they reached the dog's location, only to meet a horrifying scene. A pack of wolfs were in front of the dog, making his escape impossible. At this sight Tsugumi felt paralyzed, but Sayo charged without hesitation to his side, which alerted the beasts.
One of them tried to jump on her, but the knight easily drew her shield and reflected his attack, forcing him to fall on another wolf. This had the intended effect, as they got scared by this and decided to fled.
Only once she was sure that they were safe, she lowered her defense and turned back. Behind her the dog was staring at her moving his tail from side to side, and behind the dog was Tsugumi, who was still shocked by what just happened.
"That was… Wow… You are amazing, Sayo-san…" The brunette said with her eyes as big as plates, still processing the scene.
Upon thoughtful examination, Sayo decided it would be best for them to rest and eat while she was still expecting for Tsugumi to compose herself again. The two girls had brought food with them, and Sayo had even brought some for the dog too.
"Hazawa-san, are you feeling better?" Sayo asked once she finished eating. Although her expression was as serious as ever, Tsugumi noticed her voice being gentler than usual, she wondered if maybe Sayo was concerned about her.
"Yes, I'm fine!" She said with a smile that she hoped would ease the knight's worries. "But are you sure you should be helping me now? Don't you have more important things to do?" This was something the brunette couldn't get out of her head since they got there, why was the head of the knights taking care of all those tasks herself?
"Do you really need to ask after seeing those wolfs?" Sayo said concerned. "It is a knight's duty to protect and help those in need. Right now you require my help, therefore I will do anything in my power to help you." She stated with a reassuring smile, one that allowed Tsugumi to finally understand.
"You are a kind person, Sayo-san." She beamed at her and immediately noticed how she has taken Sayo by surprise, since her face reddened for the second time before she quickly composed herself again.
"You are as well, Hazawa-san. Perhaps you may not think much of it, but the fact that you are here searching for a medicine for your friend says a lot about you." Sayo's expression softened into a warm smile. This made the other girl blush this time, but instead of waiting for an answer, Sayo spoke again. "If you are already feeling better then we should resume our search." She stated and stood up.
"Okay!" Tsugumi was filled with determination, she knew she was able to find it, and she felt as she was going to. She stood up, more prepared than ever, she turned back to pick up her things that were on the ground and-
"Wait… Is that…" She muttered to herself. Without a word, Tsugumi started to walk towards a tree, something that caught Sayo's attention right away.
"Hazawa-san?" She asked curious of what happened, but Tsugumi continued to walk in that direction until she suddenly stopped.
"It is!" She shouted with a bright smile on her face. "I found it!" Behind the tree a good amount of herbs could be seen, and their shape, color and smell made Tsugumi know right away this was exactly what she needed to make the medicine. She kneeled on the ground and opened her bag, in just a matter of seconds she collected most of it, leaving some behind to make sure more could grow there later.
"I'm glad you found them." Sayo said with another smile she couldn't help to make as she watched the scene. "We should return to the town as soon as possible then." She continued and signaled the dog to follow them too.
"Yes!" Tsugumi said cheerfully as she stood up once again. 'Just wait a little more, Ran-chan!' She thought before starting to follow the knight towards the forest exit.
Although the time they spent traveling had been mostly a silent one, with the exception of random conversations from time to time, neither of them felt bothered by this, on the contrary, it felt like a comfortable silence. And soon after two more hours of walking they finally reached the town again.
The sun was starting to set, and they both were glad they made it before it was darker. It has been a long day after all. Once they passed the entrance Sayo was the first one to speak.
"I should return the dog to his owner. Take care, Hazawa-san." She stated, but before she could turn around Tsugumi stopped her.
"W-wait!" She said trying to think in the right way to express what she had to say. "I just wanted to thank you again for helping me, without you I would probably had encountered those wolfs alone." She paused for a second, as she figured out this wasn't everything she had to say.
"No, it's not just that… Actually… I was scared to go to the forest, so thank you for being with me." She gave Sayo a warm smile that she hoped would show how much she was grateful to her.
"You don't need to thank me, as I stated before, it is a knight's duty to help those in need." Sayo said returning the smile. Although her words said that, Tsugumi wondered if Sayo simply wanted to help her, but she decided it would be best not to say that aloud.
Instead, she decided it would be better if they finished what they had to do, after all, she could go and talk to her again another day, but just before she had the chance to say this another voice appeared out of nowhere.
"Tsugu and… Hikawa-san?" This was a voice Tsugumi instantly recognized, that particular way of speaking could only be from only one person. "What are you two doing together?" The girl asked with a finger placed on her mouth.
"Ah, Moca-chan!" Tsugumi greeted her. "I have everything that I need for Ran-chan's medicine!" She said as she showed her bag to her friend.
"Ohhhh, that's great, Tsugu. Tsugood job." Moca said before looking curiously at Sayo. "But you haven't answered my question. Are you two perhaps on a date?" She asked with a smug grin on her face, which only got worse as the more Tsugumi's face reddened.
"Hazawa-san required my help to search for the ingredients, that is all." Sayo quickly refuted the question. "If you excuse me, I have matters to attend. Until we meet again." She stated and signaled the dog to follow her, before she started to walk away.
"See you later, Sayo-san!" Tsugumi answered and turned her attention to Moca again, who felt a just a little bit intimidated by the knight.
"Oh, I scared her off." She joked around, pretending it hadn't been the other way around. "Anyway, I was just about to buy some food for Ran, see ya." Moca said before taking her leave too.
Tsugumi started to walk to the temple again, in her walk she started to wonder about her long day and the many things she had learned about the knight, and also how much she has helped her. She thought that she understood now what kind of person Hikawa Sayo was, which was something weird since most of the people in the town didn't seem to do so.
Tsugumi wondered if maybe Sayo opened up a little to her more than she usually did with others, this idea made her happy, but it wasn't something she would ask Sayo about. But regardless of that, Tsugumi felt that they had created a strong bond that day.
AN2: Also, you may have noticed that I borrowed some dialog from game stories, this was of course intentional since they met for the first time in this AU and it felt more natural this way.
AN3: It has been a long time since I wrote something, so while I think some parts could been improved, this is the best that I can do right now. Please give me a review on what you thought about it and in which ways do you think I can improve. Also, keep in mind that I do not have any betas and I'm still learning grammar, so I can't find the errors by myself just yet.
AN4: Thanks Wendy for your incredibly detailed review on Discord and for helping me improve this thing a lot~