Smith was running. And she couldn't even recall properly why she was. She usually doesn't play around when she was in a middle of a plan like this one, but there were just so many things happening at once; she was starting to lose track of the events that had happened.

So she remembered that she and the M.O.N crew were cornering some liminals that were trespassing the country without permit. Then the liminals-5 of them, to be exact, suddenly all started to escape at such speed, that even Manako couldn't shoot one properly. It was as if they were expecting them to corner them, and had a plan to get out of it. Anyways, they ran away from their reach. And she remembered trying to chase them…

And now she was here, in the middle of Kii's forest. Although she came to this forest every once in a while to check on Kii, she never came in this deep. Any signs of human civilization were nowhere to be found. The only things she could see were trees, rocks, grass, and maybe some bugs.

In other words, she got lost.

"Ugh, where did they go?" she murmured, as she looked around her, trying to find something else than just plants and rocks. But not even an animal was in sight.

Now that was a problem.

Losing the trespassers was something that she would have to worry a bit later. She was helplessly lost. She took out her phone from her pocket, hoping that it will be able to give her some help. A map, or maybe even a call, would help. But it turned out that both options weren't available. The internet wasn't working, and she couldn't even call anyone, either. She was in an area that was off-service.

"Shit," she breathed to herself. How could she get stuck in the middle of the woods, at this timing? She was in the middle of a mission. And her teammates needed her. Well, of course they could do all the physical stuff without her, but she needed to be there to do the ordering and get the approvals whenever they wanted to do anything.

It was already turning a bit dark. Places like these would get darker sooner than the city. If she couldn't get out of this place quick, then she wouldn't be able to move for a while. And it didn't seem like she would be able to find a way out anytime soon.

She stopped running, and caught her breath as she started to think. What would she have to do? She was running out of strength, and she has no help to expect. And she is in the middle of nowhere. Should she be looking for a cave to spend the night? Should she be trying to make fire? Unable to get to a conclusion, she just walked on. Her legs were getting numb, but she didn't have any other choice. Stopping and making a fire or a camp wasn't anything that she was confident in doing.

Dammit, she thought. Maybe she should have taken some cooking-and-crafting lessons from Kimihito. If he was in this situation, he would have already made himself a hut by now. She cursed herself for getting in this situation and not having the skill to get out of it.

So she just started to walk. As she walked on, she tried to think of something, anything, to be exact. She was running out of energy, and she could barely move her legs forward. She spent enough energy when she was cornering those liminals during the mission. She felt like she could faint of fatigue any moment now. But she knew that she couldn't. She couldn't just collapse here; she'll definitely die, unless someone found her. She let her thoughts go wild and land on any random topic: her messy room, the paperwork she had to do, and the girls that were dwelling in Kimihito Kurusu's house.

But as time went, even that started to become difficult. She was feeling dizzy. And she could feel her footsteps getting slower. She was at her limit.

When her feet hit a rock, her body had enough. She could feel the last bit of strength leave her systems as she slowly leaned-no, fell towards the ground. She could feel every moment of it, but she could do nothing about it. She just couldn't put in any strength in her limbs. She just felt herself slowly fall towards the green-whatever it was. She expected her face to crash into the ground any minute now.

But it didn't.

She felt something-or someone catch her in midair. And she could hear a voice. It was a low, smooth, yet strong voice that would have caught anyone's attention as soon as they heard it. At least, it was a voice that caught her attention.

"Young lady, are you okay?"

She turned her head to see what, or who, had caught her. Every single act was an effort, but she managed to turn it enough so that she could see who has caught her.

It was a person. Although she wasn't in her right mind enough to identify each detail, she could easily make out that it was a very tall, quite muscular man. At least he seemed like it. She couldn't see any tails, scales, or wings. But she couldn't see his face yet. She had to turn her head a little more.

"Young lady?"

She turned her head to see his face, and ended up succeeding making her eyes meet his. When she did, she gasped. It wasn't a reaction that she could control. It just came out automatically.

And that was the last thing she did before she totally became unconscious and fainted in his arms.

"Manako, you see anything?"

A buzz returned to her walkie-talkie. "No, Zombina-chan. I can't see her anywhere."

Zombina threw the walkie-talkie at the ground. "Ugh! Where on Earth is she? I knew that we should have made sure that she got her walkie-talkie with her!"

"Come on, Zombina-chan," said Tionishia, as she approached closer to her. "She'll be fine."

"I know she'll be fine! I'll kill her if she isn't! I-"

Her ranting was stopped by a sudden buzzing in her walkie-talkie.

"Zombina-chan! Tionishia! I can see her coming towards the city from the forest!"

Zombina dropped the gun that was in her hand. "What! You sure, Manako?"

"Yes, the M.O.N. outfit is always recognizable! Wait, wait a minute… She's not walking by herself. She's being carried by someone!"

Zombina growled. "Where is she!"

"Go straight north from where you are. I'll tell you if they move to any other direction!"

"Got it!" Zombina sprinted, totally forgetting about the gun she just abandoned.

"Zombina-chan! Wait for me!"

Zombina didn't have time to wait for Tio. As strong as she could be, she was quite slow, compared to her, and today wasn't any day for her to wait for that. She rushed northwards for quite a while.

"Manako! Any changes?"

"No! You'll be able to see them any moment now!"

Manako was saying the absolute truth. When Zombina looked ahead, she could see her. Or to be exact, she could see her outfit. Yes, that yellow M.O.N. battle gear is always recognizable.

And it was even more recognizable when the person wearing it was being held by someone else.

"You there! Stop! Stay where you are, and don't move!"

The one carrying Smith looked back at Zombina. Although she could see Smith's outfit, that didn't mean that she was in a close distance with Smith and the one carrying her. She couldn't see the face that the person was making. Or at least, she thought it was a person. She couldn't see any horns, tails, or wings, so she guessed that it was a human. She approached closer to them, feeling for her gun, trying to take it out and aim it at the person, when she figured out that she left it lying on the floor somewhere.

Damn it. She cursed more in her mind. How will she threaten the human now? Her legs kept on moving forwards, but she herself wasn't so sure if she was doing the right thing. What if he wished to harm her? What if he was the one that made Smith faint?

She had many concerns in her head as she approached them. But the closer she got, the more they disappeared. Or to be exact, the clearer the human's face became, the blanker her mind became.

How should she describe it? How could she describe him? Well, he was tall. Very tall for a human, she should say. He seemed like he was at least 190cm tall. That wasn't a height that could be normally seen around the humans of Japan. And judging by his overall features and black hair, he didn't seem like he was from anywhere else than eastern Asia. But did he look like he was a case of acromegaly? No. Every part of his body was perfectly proportionate. Standing there alone, it didn't seem like his limbs were unnaturally long or something. They seemed just fine.

Too fine.

Zombina has lived longer than most of her co-workers, if she could say that she is 'living' right now. She's seen all kinds of people. She's seen all kinds of extraspecies as well. That means that she has seen a lot of good-looking men, too. Some were charming, and some were gorgeous.

This guy was just breathtaking.

It wasn't just his face that made her think like that. Sure, his face was a masterpiece. She could swear that she has seen no one better looking than him during the time her eyes were open. But there was just something, this kind of vibe that was coming from his whole body that made her brain go numb.

"You are related to this young lady, am I right?" asked the man. Wow, even his voice was enchanting.

"Huh? Uh… yeah…" She felt like an idiot, but she couldn't start of finish her sentence properly.

"Would you please take care of her from now on? I found her in the forest. She looked very tired even before she fainted. I believe that she overworked her body too much."

"Uh… Sure…" She approached closer, only that now, she wasn't approaching to threaten him or something. Some part of her still-sane brain was ordering her to walk forward so that she could get Smith from his hands, but the more primitive side of her was forcing her to do so, just so that she could get closer to him.

When she did get close to him enough so that she could touch him, she reached out her arms so that she could. The man slightly smiled.

Zombina thought that her heart, which has already stopped beating many years ago, was beating again. She didn't even notice it when he moved Smith from his harms into hers.

"Tell her to be careful when she comes into the woods that deeply, okay?"

She couldn't even answer. She just nodded.

The man seemed to have noticed this. He smiled again. This smile was a bit wider than the last one. But it had a different effect. The… glamorous vibe, the almost unreal presence has suddenly vanished, as if she was brought to reality from a fantasy dream world. But it wasn't like his appearance changed or something. He was beautiful as always, but something was totally different.

"I'm sorry. That was a bit disturbing, wasn't it?"

Zombina was startled. "What just happened?"

He smirked. "Just think that nothing happened. It would be easier to understand that way." He then turned around, and started to walk away.

"Wait!" He stopped in his place. "I… Um… I think I forgot to say this. Thank you for saving our boss!"

"Nothing to be thankful about. I just did what I had to do." He continued to walk on. His strides were wider than a normal human's, since the speed he was disappearing was very, very fast, when you consider that he was just walking and not running.

"Hey! What's your name!" Zombina yelled at him, wishing that she had a name to tell Smith when she wakes up.

The man paused again. He took some time to answer. "Riku. The name's Riku."

As soon as he said that, he moved very swiftly, as if he wanted to avoid any more questions. In a few seconds, he was in the forest and out of sight.