There were many things General Hazama didn't want to have to deal with. For starters he would have gladly done well without this mission in the Special Region, guiding a self-defense force into what could become a full blown war was not on the list of his ambitions, unlike some politicians back in Japan. Then he could also have gladly renounced to have to deal with a group of refuges, one of which was apparently an high religious figure, someone above the figure of an high priestess if he understood it correctly. The risk of diplomatic backlash grew exponentially in these sort of culturally heavy situation and never as in these days he was glad they had brought along someone with experience in that kind of field.

What he didn't want to deal again with at the moment however, was another report from First Lieutenant Yanagida. It wasn't as if the man was unprofessional in his job but lately he took any opportunities to try to convince him of what at best he could call a badly put together conspiracy theory. He had no doubt that the arrival of Professor Kazetani was the spark for this obsession of his but had the general known it would spiral out of control like this he would have never given permission to the man to keep an eye out "for anything suspicious".

Apparently in Yanagida's mind a lot of things could be suspicious, from mistakes in the armory inventory to unusual passing animals sighted by guards, down to his own gut feeling of "being under control". Even the sudden arrival of the refuges was too convenient to him for being a pure coincidence, or to be more precise so it was the presence between them of someone who would reinforce the professor role in their mission.

It wasn't a secret that his direct superior wanted to send him to a shrink because of his growing paranoia and it was for these reasons that Hazama dreaded what would come out of his mouth once he was done with the official part of his report. He could only hope that it wouldn't be something that would force them to send back home one of their best intelligence officers.

"Lieutenant Yanagida, do what do I own your visit?" he asked politely, trying to save appearances despite his thoughts about the man.

"Nothing much Sir, I simply have with me the latest forms compiled by Lieutenant Itami regarding the housing of the refuges. That and I wanted to discuss one of the report from the Recon Teams or to be more precise, the part of it wrote down by Professor Kazetani."

The general silently cursed to himself, never before Yanagida had been so straight forward about his latest suspicions about the poor girl, just what would he tell him this time?

"Sure, what about it?" he asked feigning indifference.

If the officer in front of him doubted the sincerity of his tone he didn't show it, instead he simply told him: "As you're probably aware what gained most of the intelligence division attention was a part regarding an argument the professor had with a local woman, born of course out of what we think was a misunderstanding caused by our scarce knowledge of the language."

Hazama knew what report he was talking about, mostly because he also heard that Yanagida wanted to personally question its reliability with the professor. In the end the girl had made clear that she wouldn't let her work go wasted and all but pretended for it to be examined with care. He was almost sure Yanagida complied only because he knew that if he denied her request any further it might have looked to be biased toward the professor.

"Despite some reserves on my part..." the lieutenant continued and Hazama noticed how tame was his phrasing "... we had our linguists work of those parts of the conversation we still couldn't properly translate and they finally managed to understand a majority of them, in no little part also thanks to Professor Kazetani impressive memory."

Despite sounding like a compliment General Hazama had no illusion that was the case, if anything it was more a subtle reminder that whatever would be related from that point onward with that report could be traced back to the professor.

"It was thanks to one word in particular that we managed to figure out a key aspect of this world... social ladder if you want to call it that" he added while offering to the general a sheet of paper out of the pile he was holding.

Taking it he gave it a cursory glance, noticing immediately how the most important part of the report were already highlighted. One passage however managed to catch his attention, enough to leave him genuinely surprised: "Slavery?"

"Yes, that's the conclusion we came to. Originally we thought the word in question could refer to a low working class such as serfs were in medieval Europe, but further confrontation with some of our POW confirmed that the Empire practice slavery" the officer explained without showing any kind of emotion despite what he was talking about "We believe that woman might have thought the professor was interested in buying some and so she took offense at that. At the very least this tell us that as common practice as it might be, slaves trade isn't what pass for a respectable job around here."

"That could make diplomatic relationships more difficult" the general commented, knowing immediately how much of an understatement it was. When they entered the Gate, despite the approval of the mission, people both in the political scene and outside of it were pretty divided on how to deal with the Special Region and he doubted in the little time it had passed things could have got any better. With this piece of information he was sure many new debates would be sparked and many of those that ended already would be rekindled. He could only hope they would leave him out of it for the most part.

"I can't help but agree with you Sir, however there's a point that's being raised during the debriefing of the intelligence division that I think should be brought to attention."

Hazama motioned for him to continue and Yanagida complied: "If we take as example our own world societies with a culture of slaves trading their main mean of acquiring them was through conflicts and more generally speaking whenever they waged war in a new territory. Casualties during the Ginza Incident were consistent but so were the number of missing people."

He didn't say anything else, he didn't need to, what the intelligence division was implying was obvious enough. If the inevitable report that would make its way back home wasn't going to upset some people before it surely would now.

"That's a reasonable concern, however so far it's just that, we have yet to find concrete evidence of slavery, let alone the existence of Japanese captives, that's the priority before we take any more actions based on these information. Until then I trust the intelligence division to not divulge any of this, unless confirmed these are just theories and we can't risk for anyone judgment to be clouded by these assumptions, it could jeopardize the whole mission. Did I made myself clear?"

"Transparent" the other man answered before turning to leave. Suddenly however he stopped in the middle of the action and turned once again toward the general, as if he just remembered something.

"Forgive me, but due to the importance of these last news I almost forgot a more trivial report by comparison, more of a personal observation if you will."

The general almost sighed in resignation, of course there was no way even in light of such a discovery that Yanagida didn't have one of his more personal report to relay to him. Regardless he knew by that point that he didn't really had that much of a choice in the matter: "Sure, what else Lieutenant?"

The man began once again to shuffle the pile of papers he was holding until he found what he was looking for and looked straight at the general: "As you may remember some day ago I mentioned how there were some discrepancies in the inventory of weapons shipment and the one compiled by the quartermaster. Back then it was simply some pieces of equipment, so it was understandable to dismiss it as a mistake, however I still kept an eye out as recommended by you Sir and found it wasn't a one-time occurrence."

Despite all Hazama was still intrigued about this development and so he obviously asked: "Really? Did something else appear to be missing?"

"Yes, as I said last time it was simply a couple of small arms and ammunition, this time however the discrepancies are about the number of explosive and heavy ordinance and some more ammunition. The same kind that was missing last time, the same in which the missing firearms are chambered."

"And what exactly is missing, if it's not just a mistake on the quartermaster part?" the older man asked, somewhat concerned by the news.

"Apparently we were short of a Type 64 rifle, two Minebea P-9 and an Ithaca 37, along with their correspondent ammunition. However this time, aside from more ammunition for the already missing weapons, we appear to be short of four frag grenades, two smoke grenades, two flashbangs, about five kilos of plastic explosive along with a detonator and five electric fuses and finally a Panzerfaust. I think it's clear why I wanted to bring this to your attention Sir."

This time Hazama didn't feel like calling the officer paranoid, if the first time the discrepancies were negligible if only because of their numbers, this time the pieces of equipment missing from the inventory list were not something as easy to just dismiss as a mistake. If they truly had been stolen then it meant that there was a thief running around with anti-tank weaponry and that was not a possibility the general was going to ignore just yet.

"Do we have any proof of these truly being a theft?" he asked Yanagida, this time not caring about whether or not the man had been overthinking some simple mistake.

"This is what I found truly concerning" the officer replied in a tone that immediately deflated the general hopes for a clear answer "Despite the clear differences between the two inventory lists, nothing would suggest any unauthorized personnel even got close to the armoury. The guards didn't saw or heard anything and the cameras we installed so far didn't catch anything either. As far as evidences goes nobody entered or leaved the building taking with him any weapon without checking with the quartermaster first."

His rational mind knew that with what Yanagida provided him so far the answer was pretty simple; there had been no theft, there never was one, it was just the wild imagination of a paranoid intelligence officer at work, taking some simple mistakes as something more. Rationally speaking it had to be the only possible explanation, they had no evidence that proved otherwise so rationally speaking Yanagida had to be wrong just like he was in suspecting a young scientist to be some kind of enemy secret agent.

Rationally speaking however gates that linked two worlds didn't exist, neither did magic, ogres or dragons. And yet here he was, waging a war in another world, his soldiers having killed ogres and other "impossible" creatures by the thousands, having read reports that talked of magic as a real deal and with the arm of a dragon already on its way back to Earth to be examined by their best scientists. Lately being grounded in rationality proved to be not as reliable as it once did.

Besides he had a gut feeling about the whole ordeal and he wasn't about to dismiss it that easily, not when similar gut feelings already proved useful to him in the past.

"As you said we have no proof this isn't just a common human mistake" he told Yanagida after a brief pause "However I feel like this isn't something we can just ignore. Sure, our guards saw nothing and neither did our cameras, but guards can be eluded and as you said we still have too few cameras installed as of now. Increase the surveillance around the armoury and have more cameras installed around the base, just be subtle about it, we don't need anyone panicking yet. Worst comes to worst it will just be me being cautious."

The man in front of him seemed satisfied and immediately saluted him with more spring in his actions that he ever saw before: "Of course Sir, I'll see to it immediately."

As soon as he exited his office Hazama couldn't help but be weirded out by how upbeat Yanagida had sounded just a few seconds ago. It was hard for him to admit but he would have preferred the usually detached officer or even his more paranoid attitude over what he just witnessed any other day. The fact he had such a thought didn't filled him with confidence toward his next meeting with Yanagida.


Whatever she could have said about the JSDF Sanae had to admit that when it came to making feel their soldiers at home they were pretty good at it. She definitely didn't expect for them to have basically bath houses instead of more spartan bathing arrangements, although she supposed it might as well have been one of the many adjustments made for the sake of the refuges. She still was grateful that more reserved bathrooms did exist though or else she might have had an harder time working on her hairs.

She sighed as she moved a strand of black hairs in front of her eyes. She understood why the change of colour was a necessity but it didn't make the effort of keeping an eye out for any regrowth to apply a new layer of hair dye any less annoying. Why it was that everything in this mission seemed to be conspiring against her down to the smallest detail? At least at that hour the women bath house was empty save for herself, so as she relaxed in the warm water she could finally try to make some order in her head about the most recent events.

The refuges were a pretty big change in what she expected to have to deal with and that was without considering some of the more "peculiar" individuals. As usual she did her information gathering as expected from a "scientist" such as her, even if most of what she learned was knowledge she had already acquired during her first and so far only journey with a Recon Team. At worst that would have been just a waste of time, unfortunately there were some people that actually could pose a danger to her cover identity.

First there was the blonde girl that she learned was supposedly an elf, although Sanae still wasn't completely sure what she classified as by her standard given that she definitely wasn't human and she was capable of magic. Luckily she also didn't seem to have her head screwed on straight, which she had to admit was an horrible thing to be grateful for, so she also didn't seem to pay too much attention to her surroundings.

A whole different case were the blue haired mage and her teacher, which she didn't sense at first, both of them clearly being well versed in their art although it was obvious that the old man had seen better days. His apprentice on the other hand not only was still young and likely in her prime, she also seemed awfully curious about anything related to the JSDF, especially their technology, with such a fervor that along with the unusual shade of her hairs Sanae would have thought her to be a kappa had she not known otherwise.

And finally there was the one she was most concerned about, the deceptively young raven haired girl which presented herself as the Apostle of Emroy. From what information about them Sanae had managed to gather, Apostles were the messengers of the gods' will and as such were above even high priests when it came to religious matters. What those information didn't tell her however was that they had such an impressive divine power at their disposal and to make things worse she doubted the girl would be as naive as her look suggested.

So far she managed to avoid meeting with them with the excuse that she wanted to question the three of them individually since she expected to learn much more from them than what she could gather by simple civilians, but she knew sooner or later she would have to spend more than a few moments in their breathing space and not even Yukari's shikigami would be of much help with that.

Right, there also was the fact that apparently the kitsune was back from what she insisted was only a minor indisposition. At first Sanae was relieved when she was contacted by her and she really hoped she could finally get some proper help, so she dutifully brought her up to speed to her current concerns. That relief was quick to disappear once Ran asked her in an even tone and wearing a far too emotionless face if she could progress with her mission or if her "concerns" needed to be "removed" first. Given that those words were spoken by a centuries old youkai who served another youkai that would have made the Devil tips his hat in approval Sanae was all too quick to insist that she could pull through and that nothing or nobody needed to be "removed".

In the end Ran reassured her she would just keep an eye on her but she was quick too add "For the moment" before going whenever she went when she was not debriefing with Sanae. Still, the knowledge that there finally was someone not a world away on which she could rely, if not a bit too eager, was a welcome improvement. She couldn't help however but be nervous about the success of her gambit or be concerned as to how long it would take for Yukari to actually put her plan into motion. Not surprisingly once news of the JSDF fighting a dragon reached Tokyo the stability of the Hakurei Barrier was once again compromised and therefore the numbers of spiritings away increased. Too make matters worse the full moon was nearing once again, meaning those back in Gensokyo would soon have to deal with looking for compromising objects and lost Outsiders while all youkai of the land were on a power trip. Her own role sure wasn't easy but she didn't envied them one bit.

As she was still soaking in the warm water a distant murmuring took her out of her musings and she quickly realized that someone else was approaching the same tub she was in. Soon enough from behind a corner appeared a short woman with short brown hairs wearing nothing but a towel. Sanae recognized her as a member of the now famed Third Recon Team although she didn't know her personally but she quickly forgot about her as soon as she caught sight of the other three figures following her, the last three people she wanted to meet at the moment.

From what she knew separate bath houses had been built for the Special Region refuges, so she had no idea why those three would be there. Before she could think any longer about it the leading woman finally noticed her, prompting those behind her to do as well, and decided to greet her: "Oh, I didn't know you would be here... Professor Kazetani, was it? I'm sorry if I got it wrong but I think we meet only at your introduction to the Recon Teams."

Being finally forced to focus on the woman, Sanae struggled a bit before giving an answer that had any semblance of normalcy: "It's alright, I was just taking a break from work but on the other hand I'm a bit surprised by your company. I thought it was decided that the refuges would have their own bath houses, did something changed that I wasn't told of?"

The woman shook her head in denial before adjusting her towel: "Nothing serious, a pipe just broke and those three were the last who had to took a bath so I offered to look after them as they use our bath house. I hope we aren't disturbing or anything."

Sanae had to bite her tongue from saying that yes, she would have very much preferred to not take a bath with the three magic users from another world that could find out the truth about her. As much as she dreaded it, unlike the times at the refuges' camp an outright refusal at a time like that would have been too suspicious and given how that intelligence officer was still breathing down her neck that was the last thing she needed.

So it wasn't without doubt that she finally agreed: "No need to worry, I was finished anyway and I was just enjoying myself a bit. The pool should be big enough regardless."

There was no need to take any sudden decision, she would stay around just a little more and then leave like any normal person would do after finishing a bath, nobody being any more suspicious of her than they already were nor any wiser to the truth behind her presence. At least that was what she kept telling herself as the three girls behind the woman seemed to have recognized her from her visits to the camp and they were now looking at her with various degrees of interest.

As they all made their way to enter the tub, Sanae had enough time to look at them closer than she ever did before and gauge their reactions about her presence. The elf seemed to be either oblivious or indifferent to her "differences", but given her first impression of the girl Sanae wasn't that surprised. The blue haired mage on the other hand, despite her emotionless mask there was no hiding the spark of curiosity in her eyes the moment she saw her and only grew as she listened the conversation that just occurred which, given how she was apparently trying to learn Japanese by herself, Sanae had no doubt the girl managed to grasp the meaning to some extent.

But the one she was truly worried about was the Apostle, especially because during the length of her talk with the woman she never averted her eyes from Sanae and even now she was wearing an almost invisible smile that was nothing but innocent. From what she gathered her god domain was over war, violence and insanity so Sanae felt rightfully entitled to be wary of how the deceitfully young girl would act if she suspected her divine heritage. Knowing that the reason for which the JSDF didn't keep her under guard was most likely because they didn't considered her as a threat only made things worse.

Despite this she was able to maintain her relaxed posture and she didn't let her uneasiness show on her face, even as the people she tried to avoid the most were taking a bath in her same tub at less than a couple of meters of distance. She didn't need to be that nervous, just a couple more minutes at worst and then she would excuse herself out of there, back to her room and away from the dangerously curious magic users.

She almost didn't noticed how the woman soldier that brought them there to begin with seemed to be unsure whether or not she should try to strike a conversation until she spoke: "Right, I forgot to introduce myself, Sergeant First Class Shino Kuribayashi from Third Recon Team. You probably already know of these three but in case you don't let me introduce you to Tuka Luna Marceau, Lelei La Lalena and finally Rory Mercury, although given your job you probably know more about them than I do."

Deciding that there was nothing wrong with playing along Sanae did her part: "Sanae Kazetani, a pleasure to meet you and yes, I did know about those three girls already, their fame precede them."

The silence that followed was awkward but Sanae was fine with that but it seemed that the other woman wasn't of the same mind: "I heard you and Recon Team 6 found some pretty big villages out there, did anything interesting happened?"

She probably felt like it was her duty to try to lighten up the atmosphere, something that in any other situation Sanae would have found admirable but now it only meant that she had to spend more time next to three girls very curious about the conversation that was taking place in front of them.

"Well nothing much really, besides I doubt it would hold a candle to fighting of a dragon" she answered hoping that would be enough.

"When you put it like that I guess it's true but personally I wouldn't mind being on another team, I mean, sometimes some of the others are just so unbearable, you know?"

Sanae just nodded despite not really having idea of what she was talking about, more interested in how the other girls were huddled in a corner with the young mage in the middle whispering something to the others, perhaps what she understood of their exchanges.

"You'd think that for a mission like this they would only take the best right?" the brunette continued being totally oblivious to her lack of interest "Instead I got a bunch of weirdos that I have to go along with. Don't get me wrong there are some nice people, our medic is alright and we even have one veteran amongst us, but then you got people like those two otaku, hell one of them is our commanding officer, can you believe that?"

By now Sanae was convinced that the other girl was just venting some steam instead of having a proper conversation so she was prepared to excuse herself out of there, but as luck would have it things went differently.

"Well, I guess you'll see for yourself when you'll be appointed to our team."

"I was under the impression that so far all recon mission were suspended" said Sanae, confused by the new piece of information.

"Technically it's true but I doubt it will be forever" replied with conviction the soldier "Besides if we go by schedule we're next after Recon Team 6 so unless our next mission was changed to be something particularly dangerous you'd follow us regardless. Or at least that's how I think it works."

That could be annoying, her role was to follow the JSDF movements, that much was true, but from how the woman worded it every mission in which there was a chance of a contact with the locals was one to which she would be appointed as expert on the field. So far nothing major had happened because the higher officers lacked the information to do so and so they had to wait for the recon missions, but now that those finally were concluded there was no telling when they'd make their next move. It wasn't unlikely that Sanae could find herself away from the base and miss when they'd start to move out and in that case she wouldn't know until she was back. While it wasn't that much of a problem for Sanae apparently Yukari needed to know up to the smallest detail for the success of her plan, whatever it was, and that tied with a much more personal worry of the girl. She'd need to tell them about this next time they had a talk.

"Who is she?"

The new voice stuttered and got almost all the accents wrong but it spoke Japanese. Turning in the direction from where it came from Sanae realized that one of the worst thing that could happened just happened. Lelei La Lalena was making the first steps toward making her acquaintance.

The soldier seemed to be surprised, if by the question or by the girl's choice of language she couldn't tell, until she answered always in Japanese although slower: "Didn't we told all of you already? We want to know more about what you believe in and she's here to help us."

The bluette however didn't seemed to be satisfied with the answer: "What she do? She only asks strange things but never to me, to us. Is that help?"

The woman seemed to be conflicted about something until she turned to Sanae and asked her yet another of the worst things that could happen: "Could you explain it yourself? I'm still not sure I understand completely what you're supposed to do."

For the briefest moment the girl was tented to say she couldn't and come up with some excuse but then she resigned herself to tell the younger girl about her supposed job: "I studied anthropology of religions, that means that I know a lot about religions, superstitions and customs. I help the JSDF by studying those same things about your people so we can better understand you."

"How can you understand people?" asked the mage still scrunching her eyebrows in confusion.

Seeing she wouldn't get out of it that easily, Sanae tried to made clearer what the job was about. "You believe in many gods, right?" she asked to Lelei, the girl nodding hesitantly, not understanding how this was related to her question.

"But do you all pray to the same gods?"

This time the mage seemed to take a few moments longer before she shook her head: "No, one choose a patron god that fit him better."

Sanae acknowledged her lapidary answer by nodding herself enthusiastically: "So if I know which god you pray to and what that god stands for don't you think I could know about you a little more?"

The girl seemed to ruminate on the words for some seconds until she turned at her once again, this time a look of understanding over her eyes. Sanae thought that probably she still had doubts but those would probably come back later, hopefully when she had more time to mentally prepare herself for the inevitable interrogation the young mage would put her through.

As the girl's companion asked her in their own tongue what the conversation she just had was about, the brunette soldier looked at her with an expression difficult to read before finally saying: "Wow, you handled that pretty well all things considered."

"Well, it's not the first time I've to explain myself, it's not exactly something most people are familiar with" she answered trying to appear bashful to hide her being nervous for feeding the woman what she was sure would be the first of many lies.

"Still, don't take this the wrong way but are you sure this is really going to help?" asked the woman with a somewhat apologetic face.

"You don't believe that much in what I do, do you?" Sanae asked despite knowing how blunt it sounded.

The soldier grimaced before answering: "It's just that it all sounds too much theoretical to me to see it as something with more concrete result, I don't doubt in your field you're quite competent but this is a battlefield not an academy, I'm more inclined to think we can solve things by shooting than by having a chat about how many festivities they have in a year. The fact that you look so young also doesn't help."

"But I saw soldiers around my age if not younger" Sanae replied, irked to some degree by the last point.

"Yes and everyone treat them as the rookies that they truly are. I'm sure the only reason I didn't went through the same is only because they knew I could kick their asses six ways to Sunday" she added, smirking as she said it, before turning serious once again "You on the other hand came out of nowhere and all of a sudden we're supposed to babysit you because you'll be around doing important stuff."

Despite wanting to deny it Sanae could understand what she meant and even agree to some measure. Still, the success of her mission also depended on how much the various JSDF members she would come to meet would trust her, so it didn't take long before she decided on her next course of action.

"I'd like to say I'm here just because they asked me to but that would be lying, I asked to be brought here."

"Wait, you did?" asked the brunette in surprise "That still doesn't change the fact you're kind of out of place here."

"Did you also knew I wasn't the only scientist to ask this to the JSDF?" Sanae bluffed, taking the following silence as a good enough answer "I'm not sure they had thought of using someone like me before I asked but I wouldn't be surprised if I wasn't the only one in my field of work to do so. Still, I'm here, not someone else. Do you know why?"

"Because of your skill and achievements, why else?" the woman asked, although sounding much more subdued than before.

"Yes, that's part of the reason but I like to think there's more to it" the girl replied "Mind you, it's just what I think is the reason but for me I've been chosen because of my determination."

"Your determination?"

"Yes or at least, as I said, that's what I'd like to believe. I didn't simply sent them a letter to ask them to join the expedition, I showed myself in person to tell them why they should do it. I went looking for someone who could recommend me to the JSDF and convinced him to do so and once they started doubting about whether or not it was safe to let me cross the Gate I gave them permission to turn my all life inside out as they looked for anything suspicions. And finally, I decided on my own to suggest them to put me through the same training of a recruit."

The soldier didn't seemed like she expected any of what she have been told but Sanae was far from finished: "At first they thought I was joking then, once they realized I was serious, they gave their approval. They probably expected me to give up in the first week so imagine their surprise when I came out of the training with flying colours. I admit it wasn't easy but I still pulled through, just so I could prove my point."

"What point could ever need you to go to such length to be proven?" the woman asked quietly with a voice brimming with... Confusion? Uneasiness? Regret? Admiration?

Sanae wasn't sure which emotion that tone carried but she knew she had already won over the female soldier: "That I wasn't just one scientist they needed. I was the scientist they needed and no matter what I would have to go through I was ready for it as long as I could still do my job."

The brunette didn't look like she had anything else to say so Sanae decided it was finally time for her to leave and she began to get out of the tub: "Well, this was an interesting conversation but I still have work to do so if you'll excuse me, I have to leave."

"I understand you."

The statement reached her as she had already began to wrap a towel around herself. Turning around she could see the woman looking back at her with a certain steel in her eyes: "It took me a while before they treated me seriously and even then most people still thought of me as a gung-ho, martial arts obsessed, hot headed girl that needed a cold shower and a new hobby if she ever was to be a "normal" person. Truth is I can't help it."

The more the soldier in front of her spoke the more she seemed to be showing some sort of determination she had kept hidden up to that moment, until she was almost feverish in the passion she put in her words. "I need to prove myself, I need to prove that women are just as capable as men even in the military. That's why I'm trying my hardest to join the Spec Ops, to become the first woman that ever managed to go that far, to prove that women, that myself, can achieve just as much."

She then sighed, losing some of the tension that seemed to have filled her body during her speech, before speaking once again: "So believe me when I say I understand your drive and I'm sorry for what doubts I did have. You can't have that much determination for something useless."

Sanae allowed herself to smile. Even if under wrong assumptions, it still was heartwarming to see someone show such respect for her effort.

"Don't worry about it, as you said people never seems to fully understand what exactly someone else has gone through. But I still appreciate your words."

"Hey, I know we will probably meet again when we will be sent out, but perhaps we could chat some other time, have some more casual conversations, that kind of stuff. You seem like a good enough person to spend time with."

The girl was honestly surprised by the sudden request but it wasn't long until she smiled again: "Sure, why not? You look good enough too."

As Sanae turned one last time before leaving the room, she noticed how whatever conversation the three refuges had going between them had now ended and two people were now staring at her. One being the bluette mage, brimming with curiosity, a curiosity that now had found a new target.

The other one however looked much more severe than any other person in the room, her eyes were fixated to Sanae in an intrigued stare, a stare that however held words that somehow the girl still manage to understand despite her observer being completely silent.

"Is that all true?"

Despite Rory Mercury not uttering a single word Sanae had no doubt that was the question now floating in her head and she knew that sooner or later the Apostle would voice it to her in a much more serious situation and she would expect an answer she couldn't give.


A.N. This came out relatively quick all things considered but as i already said the first half was already done when i started to work on this chapter. A cookie to who can finally tell what exactly is going on. As for the second part and the meaning of religion i took inspiration from a quote, "Ask someone about Heaven to know about their life" or something like that. Next chapter is very far away, both because i need time to get back my inspiration and because of a certain festivity nearing day after day. This story reached already 120 followers, thank you so much but can i ask you to keep the number of reviews a multiple of 5 so that i can satisfy my borderline OCD? Regardless, thank you for reading this story and i hope you'll be here for next chapter. See ya!