Please note that this story is in the middle of a long revision. This means there will be some minor inconsistencies between chapters that have been revised and those that haven't. Not to worry, it's nothing heavily plot related. Mostly minor details and the like. Still, the inconsistencies exist.

I knew this was going to happen.

Airi, standing alone in the inn room she and Melona had occupied as of last night, could think nothing other than this silent complaint. She knew long before Melona had suggested they rescue the man from yesterday that the whole situation would get in the way of all the things they were supposed to be doing here. Of course, that had probably been Melona's intent, since she hated working and loved distractions.

The redhead was alone because Melona had apparently dragged their new charge off as soon as he had woken up this morning, a point in time that was probably closer to noon, really. Having been so grievously injured, Airi imagined that he had needed a great deal of rest. Then again, maybe he had been up late, conspiring with Melona in helping her shirk her duties.

She doubted that of course, but Airi hadn't been present for most of the evening after bringing back food and some supplies for her unwanted guest. She and Melona didn't need to eat, after all, so Airi had been forced to procure some. Not that she was entirely enthralled by the situation, but having already started the process of saving a stranger, it would have been foolish to stop short at providing for his basic needs after the fact.

Granted, the two non-humans didn't need an inn room either, as they didn't actually need sleep even though they could rest if they wanted to. Thankfully, with Menace's curse affecting the vast majority of the population here, procuring a room simply to create an illusion of normalcy for the human temporarily among them hadn't costed anything significant.

Normally Airi wouldn't have left Melona to her own devices, seeing as how she didn't trust the slime to be responsible at all, but the wraith had been both frustrated and annoyed by Melona's typical self and Church's less than subtle ogling last night, so she'd decided to spend some time apart from both of them. Unfortunately, this had proven to be a bad move, because now that she had returned to try and force Melona to get to work and the man they had saved to go back to his own devices, neither of them was anywhere to be found.

Naturally, this reality irritated the wraith a great deal, because they were already behind schedule in regards to dragging Menace back to the Swamp. However, there was also some part of her that was worried about their human baggage. Even though Melona had revealed a previously unknown ability to heal mortal wounds, he was probably in no condition to do anything too strenuous so soon. For one, Airi had told Melona only to heal the wound to a point where Church's body could take care of the rest on its own, with the help of some stitches and bandages from Airi herself.

Obviously, if the man had half a brain, he would find the sudden lack of a serious wound very suspicious, so it was prudent to only heal him to an extent that was believable. Melona had been very blunt about asking why it mattered, what difference it would make if some random stranger knew they were nonhuman creatures, but Airi was the more cautious member of their duo. If Church made off with information, however slight, about the Swamp Witch's servants, there was no telling who he would share it with and what problems it could potentially cause. Better to just avoid the possibility altogether. Sure, a mere mortal like him would be easy to kill if they had to, but then, what would have been the point of saving him, other than wasting time and effort?

Glancing about the inn room to try and discern any clues about where her troublesome companions had gotten off to, Airi was unfortunately unable to find anything incriminating. The mostly barren room looked exactly the same as it had last night, with the exception of some ruffled sheets. The only other anomaly was the black shirt Church had been wearing at first, crumpled in a corner of the room. Airi's first thought was to be irritated by the lack of care, but based on its position, she actually felt that Church had been trying to make it as inconspicuous as possible. Maybe he hadn't known where to put his soiled clothing, and she doubted Melona had been very helpful to him on that front.

With a sigh of resignation, Airi walked over and grabbed the bloodied article, deciding that she may as well clean it. While some small part of her acknowledged it was just a nice thing to do, the primary reason for this was a lot more instinctive. She was a maid at heart, and the urge to clean such a blatant mess was almost irrepressible. It wasn't like anyone was around to judge her cleaning habits anyway, since they'd all run off to who knew where.

Frankly, Airi was kind of surprised by the development. Melona had taken a very strange liking to the complete stranger that Airi had not expected from her. Then again, perhaps she was just so bored and unwilling to do the Witch's bidding that anything even slightly out of the ordinary was enough to grab the slime's attention. Airi didn't even know if Melona was capable of honestly being friends with someone: even the relationship between themselves was a stretch to label real friendship. And if she were somehow going to become friends with someone, it was very unlikely that would happen over the course of one night.

That said, Airi couldn't imagine why the man they had rescued would go with Melona on some harebrained trek through the town of his own volition. Surely he was in need of rest... unless he'd been unwilling to tell her no, since she had a hand in rescuing him.

Initially, Airi didn't want to admit that he may actually be that considerate. But she knew she was probably making a bit too harsh of a judgment in that case. There was no denying that he had been staring, but truthfully Airi had been more bothered on principle. Even with his gaze focused so sharply on her, it hadn't really struck Airi as lecherous. It was nothing like the perverse leers she often received from men on the streets. And of course, he had at least been suitably appreciative for what Airi and Melona had done for him, so he didn't really strike the redhead as a bad sort.

Besides, so long as his thoughts weren't depraved, was there really anything wrong with being thought of as attractive? Of all the people she'd like to think such a thing of her, a handsome man with wonderfully deep blue eyes was probably near the top of the list...

That said, the redhead was still going to try and send him on his way as soon as possible. Serving the Swamp Witch to the best of her ability was what really mattered to her, and having some human they knew nothing about around was just an obstacle to her mission. They'd done enough for this stranger already: there was no need to take their relationship any further than it was now, that being little more than acquaintances, if one could even call it that.

Even so, Airi moved towards the bathroom so she could fetch the water she needed to clean the shirt she was holding. Maybe she could do one more thing.

Church leaned against a building, resting in its shade as he took a reprieve from the situation that had somehow befallen him today. Having been awoken against his will by Melona that morning, she had insisted on dragging him into town for some nefarious purpose he wasn't allowed to know, forcing him to abandon his bloody shirt and simply zip up his jacket to hide his bandaged torso.

There were several reasons Church hadn't been enthused with the idea. Other than the fact that he didn't feel fully rested after the events of the previous day, he hadn't gotten a chance to apologize to Airi for what she had apparently taken as insulting. Not that he had any clue where to find her, since she had mostly disappeared after dropping off that bag, which had been carrying food for him.

That fact had just made him feel even worse about the fact that he'd offended her. Melona had told him that he was better off ignoring her because she was a stick in the mud, but naturally Church hadn't agreed with the sentiment. Not that he knew much about Airi as a person at this point, but on principle he didn't want the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen to dislike him. Shallow, sure. But it was what it was.

Of course, there was a much bigger issue at hand than the state of his relationship with these two strangers. Frankly, Church had not expected to wake up to this world a second time. Prior to passing out from exhaustion and fatigue last night, he'd told himself there was nothing he could do about his situation, and that if this was a dream, then surely he'd wake up soon.

But he hadn't woken up to any part of a reality he knew. Not the hostile base, not his teammates carrying him to safety, not a hospital on New Eden... he'd woken up to a girl with pink bunny ears demanding that he entertain her, same as before he had fallen asleep.

Needless to say, the situation worried Church to no small extent. As best as he could remember, he could not recall ever falling asleep in a dream and waking back up to it. And as he stood in the shade on this sandy street, he couldn't deny how real everything felt. It was fucking hot, his side stung a bit, he was feeling thirsty... of course, Church knew that most dreams felt plenty real when you were within them, but there was something else too.

Some people could tell when they were dreaming, be aware of it. Church was not one of those people. No matter how crazy or impossible the events of his dreams were, they always felt very real until he woke up, and he was able to acknowledge that he'd been dreaming. This situation was a lot different. Church was able to look around and tell that things were wrong, weird, or supposedly impossible. He was able to clearly recall what he had been doing before and why the current situation didn't add up. It wasn't like any dream he had ever had before.

The implication was troubling. If this wasn't a dream... well, what the hell was going on? Church couldn't tie any sort of logic or reason to his current situation. Even worse, if this wasn't a dream, then that meant there was no possibility of him waking back up at the terrorist base to discover what had befallen his sister.

Church felt like he should have been doing whatever he had to in order to get back to Mission, but what could he do? He couldn't even make sense of the situation in order to discern what his next step should be.

As things stood now, he had little choice but to be carried by the currents of events around him, which, for now, involved being out here in this town with Melona for what had mostly turned out to be a leisurely expedition. The strange woman had mostly dragged Church around, pointing out things or stopping at market stalls, though it felt to Church that she was less interested in those things and more interested in how Church reacted to them. Maybe she thought it was subtle, but Church could sense her curiosity and the many sideways glances she had given throughout the day.

The real question was what she was so curious about. Maybe it was harmless, as Church could tell by now that he didn't blend with the surroundings very well. Everyone was dressed differently than he was, and it wasn't a matter of fashion. Even the materials they were using were markedly different from his own. So perhaps Melona was just curious about why he was so odd compared to everyone else. Then again, she could have had some other motive, but so far Church didn't have any reason to be suspicious of her.

That said, he was making that judgment based on a very brief interaction with her. After Airi had almost killed him with the sharpness of her gaze last night, Melona had decided to stay in the room with him for awhile. The conversation had been surprisingly innocuous: Melona had of course asked where he was from and why he was dressed so strangely, and rather than open up a very confusing line of conversation for everyone involved, Church had gone the simple route. Cliche though it may be, he claimed to have amnesia. He could tell right away that Melona had been suspicious of it, but in the end she apparently took him at his word.

Why Church felt the need to be secretive was mostly caution. If this was no dream, he'd need help to figure out what the hell was going on and how the hell to fix it, but until he actually had a firm grasp of the situation he didn't want to run around telling people that he was from, seemingly, a completely different world. Who knew what kind of reaction that could get, and whether or not it would actually be a good one.

As soon as she learned that she wouldn't be able to interrogate him about his origins, the conversation turned to mostly small talk, a lot of which was teasing on Melona's part or saying bad things about Airi, though the latter seemed to be mostly in jest. Surprisingly, Church found that Melona was quite fun company: she was eccentric, but there was also a sort of bubbly feel to her that was entertaining to hang out with. Such first impressions were hardly enough to judge the entire character of a person, but thus far, Church felt no reason to mistrust her.

Speaking of Melona, Church was surprised that something had actually distracted her enough to let him rest this long, though whatever it had been apparently no longer held her attention, as she was crossing the mostly empty street to no doubt complain about his presence there.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing over here?"

With a sigh, Church nevertheless donned a weak smile. If he wasn't so tired he probably wouldn't have minded all of this, but...

"Resting. It's only been a day since I nearly died you know."

Melona folded her arms, pressing her massive bosom up a few inches. Church did his best to ignore that.

"Don't be so dramatic. People almost die all the time."

"I shudder to think why that seems so normal to you."

The woman before him shrugged.

"Anyway, the point is that you won't be seeing anything that might break through that amnesia of yours if you're sitting around over here."

Church cocked an eyebrow at his conversational partner, amused by her sentiment because he knew it was untrue.

"We both know that you didn't bring me out here to do that."

"Okay fine, so I was just bored and really didn't want to be bothered by Airi, seeing as how she's the only consistent company I've had in weeks. But what are you complaining about? You get to spend so much time with such a gorgeous babe."

"I won't deny that."

With a mischievous grin, Melona motioned for him to follow her.

"Well, if you agree, then let's go see how else Menace has ruined this town."

Church had no idea what that sentence meant or who it was referring to, but at the moment he decided there was no reason to ask. He had far too much to think about as it was. Embroiled in such thoughts as he was, and admittedly distracted by Melona's very jiggly posterior as she led the way, he didn't notice the very pointed gaze he was receiving from a hooded figure in a brown cloak a few buildings away.

At the end of the day, Church's little adventure with Melona didn't really change much from what it had been before. It was mostly just the two of them waltzing about, with Melona pointing at this, that or the other and constantly asking him if he knew what it was. Naturally, Church always said that he didn't, since it fit both the truth and his story. In reality, he didn't know much about his new environment, but it was easy to pretend that amnesia was the cause. Of course, there were a few times Melona got a little too carried away, such as when she asked him if he knew what clouds were. She had jokes for days, that one.

However, since their day was mostly falling into a cycle he could grow accustomed to, Church was soon drowning out most of it in favor of his other surroundings. He didn't have to pay much attention to what Melona was up to since he knew already what that was at any point in time. Being able to ignore the activity he was passively participating in finally allowed Church to pay more attention the the less obvious.

He felt like he was being watched. It was a feeling that was difficult to describe to others: a sort of pervasive anxiety, like something bad was going to happen. His body couldn't relax, and the things around him all seemed equally suspicious.

Frankly, Church was a little disappointed in himself for not noticing sooner. Granted, he was tired, distracted and in a completely alien environment, but even so the sniper had spent years cultivating this sixth sense of sorts. Of course, maybe the mysterious presence had only started watching him recently?

Either way, Church was inclined to question who would have their sights on him, and why. There was literally no way he could have any enemies around here: he hadn't even existed in this place long enough for that to happen. On the other hand, it could be someone that didn't have beef with him in particular, but just had bad intentions for anyone. A robber or thief maybe. Perhaps it was even those ruffians he had stumbled into yesterday?

Regardless, Church had plenty of reason to be worried. He was in no shape to fight anyone, being drained of energy already and still injured, despite the treatment he'd gotten. And even if he was in top shape, there was always his right knee. Ever since a serious injury in the field some years ago, it held him back physically. He may not have been crippled, but against someone with two good legs, he definitely had less mobility and stability. In short, he didn't really want to fight anyone in hand to hand combat, regardless of his proficiency in it.

But if he did get attacked, he'd have to defend himself one way or another... unless Melona would do it for him. Church found it hard to believe considering the not so athletic build of the woman, but Melona had claimed that she and Airi were very capable fighters in their conversation last night. He didn't really have any reason to doubt that claim, but on the surface it did seem dubious. Melona didn't really have the physique of a fighter, and she didn't appear to carry a weapon of any sort.

Then again, the two girls had supposedly saved him from a decently large group of burly guys yesterday, and he doubted they had just politely asked them to leave. Church would be lying if he said it didn't sting his pride just a little to be protected, but that was mostly due to him being used to taking care of himself. He certainly had no problems with having women in his corner: after all, Mission was the toughest person he knew, end of story.

Regardless, Church understood that there was little he could actually do right this moment about his niggling sense of impending danger. A sixth sense it may have been, but he wasn't psychic. He couldn't tell where the danger may have been, or what form it would take. That being the case, he couldn't really pursue it or do anything about it, save keep an eye out.

Turning his attention back to his immediate surroundings, Church found that he must have been more tired than he thought. He'd apparently lost track of Melona at some point, as all he could see standing around him were the bodies and faces of strangers. Seriously, how had he managed to lose someone that was 60% pink...?

Casting his gaze in many directions around him, Church couldn't see the woman anywhere. That was a problem, considering that he had no idea how to get back to the inn he had slept in last night. He needed her if he was going to do that, and besides, he didn't know literally anyone else at the moment. On principle he needed to locate her again.

Turning back towards the direction he had been facing previously, Church eyed the entrance to an alley before him. Considering that he couldn't see Melona anywhere on the road in front of or behind him, it wasn't too far-fetched that might have slipped in there, for reasons he couldn't fathom.

Deciding that there was little harm in checking either way, Church made to do just that, peering into the alleyway to see what was what. Unfortunately, he didn't lay eyes on much: it was little more than a path between buildings, with some wooden doors on either side that led into certain structures.

Considering that he had picked up on a sense of danger already, Church knew it was pretty risky to enter an alley, the place most likely to get him ambushed if someone was looking to do so. But he really couldn't imagine where else to look for his missing acquaintance. Besides, there was no guarantee the sense of anxiety he had was about him. Maybe the person that was watching them was actually after the people he was with...

In that case, it was possible that Melona was in trouble. And while Church didn't know her very well, he at least owed her for having a hand in saving him. That being the case, he felt that he had no choice but to enter this alley in hopes of finding something. It wasn't that long of an alley, so he could be in and out pretty quickly...

Stepping into the area to see if he could discern any clue of where Melona had gone, Church found no such thing as he got halfway down the alley. At this point he wasn't sure if he should turn around or go all the way through, but he didn't have to worry about that question for very long. In the moment he passed by one of the doors in this alley, it burst open, a figure barreling out of it and right towards him.

Church quickly identified that the figure, cloaked in a brown robe, was intentionally charging him, but in the small space provided to him, he had no time to evade, which resulted in him being forcibly smashed against the wall behind him. The wind may have been knocked out of the soldier, but he nevertheless managed to retaliate without much pause. He had no idea what his assailant wanted, but he wasn't going to wait to find out.

With the hooded figure pinning him to the wall up high, Church planted his good leg in the target's abdomen and used the wall behind him to brace, kicking with his slightly diminished might. Even fatigued though, it was enough to send the enemy back into the darkness of the room he had come from.

Church had a split second to decide whether he would push his advantage or flee back to the street, and logic dictated that he should return to a public area to interfere with this attack. But on the other hand, it was possible that this assailant had already nabbed Melona, which would explain why he couldn't find her anywhere. She could have been in that very room, and there was no telling what could happen to her if he got away.

Granted, this was a lot of assumptions, but he didn't have anything else to operate on. Besides, this hardly seemed like a random mugging: he needed to know why this was happening.

With that in mind, Church stepped into the room as quickly as possible, aiming to take advantage of the fight's momentum. Unfortunately, many factors occurred to him as he did so that didn't help his situation. For one, he didn't know the layout of the room he was entering. Second, the transition from bright outside to extremely dark inside meant he couldn't see shit.

This problem became more evident kicked in the midsection by his opponent, who was, to his eyes, barely more than smudge on a background of blackness. He supposed his foe had only been exposed to brightness for a brief moment, so perhaps he hadn't been affected as harshly.

Church tried to trade blows with his target, but a few things became apparent as he missed more punches and took more hits himself. For one, his vision problems were seriously hampering his ability to fight. Two, his opponent clearly had martial skill beyond his own. And three, he was pretty rusty. It had been some time since he had fought anyone with his fists.

At one point, Church felt a kick connect with his bad knee, which buckled almost immediately under the impact, forcing the soldier onto his knees. Unfortunately, this was about the time his vision cleared up, at least to an extent good enough to allow him the sight of a knee coming towards his face.

With the cleaning of one shirt not being something that took overly long, Airi was soon gone from the inn in which she had been carrying out that task. After all, she did have important things to do. Unfortunately, she couldn't go right away to achieve her objective, which was of course bringing Menace back to the Swamp Witch.

The problem with that was that Airi was almost certain negotiation wouldn't work. Menace literally only cared about restoring her wasted kingdom... there was nothing Airi or anyone could offer her to get her to willingly abandon that. That being the case, it was pretty likely that force would be necessary. And that's where a lot of problems came into play.

If it came down to a fight, it would be far better to have Melona at her side: not that Airi had no faith in her ability to win alone. They were all roughly similar in strength, though that strength manifested in different ways. Although, Airi did feel that she had a considerable advantage over Menace, seeing as how she had a significant range advantage with both her weapon and her powers. But even so, the goal wasn't to prove who was stronger or weaker in some honorable duel. It was only practical to take on the Amaran princess two-on-one, in order to achieve the objective as quickly as possible.

This was why Airi's first task was to locate her wayward companion so she could forcefully drag her back to her duties. She had no interest in being punished because of the incompetence of someone else.

Naturally, Airi would have to search for the slime, and the only efficient way to do that was from the air, which was thankfully within Airi's power. Thankfully, she was also capable of fading from the physical plane to an extent where no one would see her, though she doubted the cursed townsfolk of Menace's new empire would even care or notice.

All of these factors combined was what led to Airi's current position, hovering far above the buildings below her. Ordinarily it wouldn't be helpful to search for a single individual from this high up, but this was Melona they were talking about: she would stand out. Of course, there was the possibility that she was in a building, which could be a problem... worse came to worst, she could have her minor spirits search the town's buildings. They too could escape the naked eye if desired, so it would pose no issue.

However, it was quickly proven to be unnecessary. This desert town already wasn't that large, with the building Menace was forcing a bunch of slaves to make as her palace already bigger than anything that had been here before. But Melona made the task of finding her even easier, seeing as how the slime was standing on a rooftop for some reason. Airi decided not to question her good fortune, though she would certainly question the situation in a moment.

She descended to Melona's level quickly, materializing enough to be visible upon reaching the single story roof Melona was standing on. If anyone noticed, no one cared.

"Melona, what have you done?"

To her credit, the pink slime did not seem surprised at Airi's sudden arrival. She did acknowledge Airi's ire though, with her own.

"Why do you just assume that I did something?"

"You're standing on a rooftop, clearly searching for something. You're also alone despite coming out here with someone."

"Alright fine, I lost track of Church, but I didn't actually do anything. I was gonna play a prank on him because he wasn't being very entertaining, then he up and disappeared while I was taking a street to get behind him..."

Airi shook her head in dismay, not at all surprised by the situation.

"Sounds to me like he ditched you, not that you lost him. Let him leave, we've got our own matters to attend to."

The bunny girl didn't turn to look at Airi, instead continuing to scan the streets around her that she could see.

"Nah, he wouldn't do that. I mean, I just met the guy, but he definitely would have said something."

the redhead beside her quickly donned an expression of irritation.

"Why do you care? You've never bothered with any random stranger like this before."

"I've never had a random stranger actually be more interesting than two sacks of shit in a barn before. You find out what the most important thing going on in some random person's life is, and nine times out of ten they're worried about whether or not they have enough money to get drunk at a tavern, or whether or not their stupid spouse is cheating on them, or someone stole their sweet roll..."

Airi really didn't know why she was still entertaining this conversation, but it was probably because she was actually curious about Melona's reasoning. To the best of her knowledge, the slime was completely egotistical and wouldn't do anything unless it benefited her somehow. What was she actually hoping to gain by fraternizing with this one man?

"And the most important thing going on in Church's life is more interesting than those examples?"

"Of course! Here we have a guy stumbling out of the desert, grievously wounded, dressed in clothes that are super unfamiliar, and he can't remember where he came from. Sounds way more interesting than anything else I could bother with at the moment, don't you think?"

Airi wanted to say no to that, but she had to admit that she was actually kind of curious. From an objective standpoint it was an interesting scenario. Still, not interesting enough to take priority over their actual reasons for being here.

"He doesn't know where he came from? He didn't mention anything like that before."

Finally, Melona turned back to cock an eyebrow at her.

"How the hell would you know? You spoke to him for all of twenty seconds before glaring into his soul and leaving, you frosty witch."

When it was put like that, Airi realized that maybe she had been a little too harsh in the aforementioned scenario. She couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed about it.

"T-that... I couldn't help it, I felt like he was undressing me with his eyes!"

"No you didn't, you were totally fine right after he sweet talked you. It was me who made you mad again."

"Why are you so proud of it?"

Melona shrugged, seemingly unbothered by Airi's irritation. No surprise there. With nowhere to take that conversation, Airi decided to turn things back to what mattered.

"Melona, you've fooled around enough today. We need to grab Menace and leave."

Turning her attention to her companion fully, Melona folded her arms.

"I just told you I lost Church out here somewhere and he has amnesia. We're practically the only people he knows now. You just gonna ditch him under those circumstances?"

Airi hated to admit that Melona's words struck a chord with her, but they did. It would be pretty low to do such a thing... even so, she steeled herself and tried to ignore it.

"You're so remarkably altruistic all of a sudden, Melona. He's a grown man, even with amnesia, he'll be fine. He'll find work somewhere, stay at an inn or work for board, all the things a normal person does. It's not our job to shepherd people who've lost their memory."

Honestly, Melona didn't really care what happened to Church on an altruistic level. Really, she was just sick and tired of Airi nagging her day and night about doing what the Swamp Witch wanted. At this point she just wanted to keep the new guy around to have a break from that. At least talking to him didn't make her feel like smashing her gelatinous head into a wall.

That being the case, she was determined to find a way to persuade Airi to her point of view. It was just a matter of making it seem necessary.

"C'mon Airi, we could use him. He could be helpful with Menace."

Needless to say, the wraith beside her had no idea where Melona was trying to go with this.

"How exactly?"

"Well look, maybe we can use Church to bring her back? I know the plan was to just beat her up and drag her back, but come on: we're far away from the Swamp. There's no way we'll be able to stop her from trying to bail at every opportunity, and we certainly can't tie her up and drag her back on a trip that's going to take more than a week. We need her to come along willingly. If she were convinced that she had a willing servant in our little male friend..."

Airi folded her arms, not seeing this in the same light Melona was. "Why on earth would she trade the hundreds of people she has here for one man? That doesn't make any sense."

"Because, Menace is easy to manipulate, and really vulnerable to praise. I think she'd honestly rather have one servant worship her willingly than a hundred under mind control... just think about it, the one follower she consistently keeps at her side, and the only one she actually cares about as an individual, is Setra, the one willing servant she has. It could work."

While Airi admitted that Melona had a point, and she could actually see this argument possibly holding some sway over Menace, she could foresee some other problems as well. She decided to ask about the biggest one first.

"What makes you think Church, who we barely know anything about, will willingly worship some woman he himself doesn't even know?"

This was a fairly good question, but Melona still managed to come up with some sort of practical solution. "What if we strike a deal with him?"

"Meaning?"

"Like I said, he has amnesia. Doesn't know where he is, where to go, or anyone around here. But at this point he knows us, and I'd be willing to bet that, as long as he doesn't have direction of his own, he'd rather stick with us than go off on his own when he doesn't know shit about anything. So what if we let him stick around with us as long as he fakes some crazy obsessive admiration for Menace? If he keeps it up until we can get Menace close enough to the Swamp to force her back, we can subdue her, let him go on his merry way, and you'll never have to hear about him again. It all sounds pretty reasonable to me."

While it was a pretty irrational plan that had some holes in it, Airi figured that it was worth a shot at least. If it did fall through, it wasn't like they were any worse off than they were right now. It had a chance to improve their situation but no chance of making it worse, so why not? Besides, while she wouldn't admit it out loud, she was kind of against screwing over the guy with no memory and no idea of what to do with himself.

"Alright, we'll give it a shot, but only because we don't have a better alternative. That said... where did you lose him?"

Melona found herself surprisingly pleased that Airi had accepted her suggestion. She had honestly half-assed the whole idea. If Airi was willing to give it a try, she must have been really desperate, though she always was when it came to the Witch.

"Within a hundred paces of this street. I only just starting looking when you showed up."

With a sigh, Airi summoned a number of her lesser minions, small floating orbs of ethereal light and flame. Despite being faceless wisps, they were sentient, but the subservient spirits lacked real autonomy. That being the case they were almost entirely obedient to her wishes.

"Search the inside of these buildings for the man we're looking for, but do so while invisible to the mortal eye. Come back to me if you find him."

With no need for acknowledgments, the orbs of faintly glowing light dispersed and started phasing through the walls of the buildings around them. While still visible to Airi, they were completely veiled from the eyes of normal individuals. Fading from the physical plane to that extent meant they couldn't do much, but they didn't need to do much anyway: just look around inside some buildings.

Melona questioned the exact nature of Airi's direction.

"Why bother telling them to be invisible? The people around here already don't seem to even notice us."

"The people around here are likely under some spell of Menace's, while Church is not."

"And that matters because...?"

Leveling a cocked eyebrow at Melona, Airi made her case.

"If you were a normal human, and two relative strangers revealed that they were a slime that can imitate the appearance of others and a wraith that steals mortal vitality, how willing would you be to help them with anything?"

"Ah, yeah... good point."

Church groaned as his aching body felt the pain of a direct impact to the face. Really, he had to stop doing this: this was the third time in all of two days that he was waking up in pain and disoriented.

He opened his eyes to the room he'd been knocked out in, though he was able to see it much better now. Minus a few crates in a corner and a chair in front of him, it was barren. Considering that it lacked even a window next to the wooden door, Church assumed it wasn't any sort of living space. Looked more like wasted storage space, honestly.

What wasn't in here was Melona, meaning he'd gotten knocked out for no good reason. Then again, it had been a pretty bad idea from the start. He had been operating off of way too many assumptions.

"Took you long enough to wake up. I'm insulted that you think I've got this much time to waste on you."

Sitting up, Church laid eyes on his assailant, for some reason standing behind him instead of sitting in that perfectly available chair. It was of course the slightly shorter individual in the hooded brown cloak, his face still shrouded by his fabrics.

There were a few things to consider before Church made any reply. For one, he was still alive so his attacker wasn't out to kill him. Two, his attacker was still here, meaning the goal wasn't to rob him. With killing and stealing out of the cards, that meant Church was being targeted specifically, though Church couldn't imagine why. Finally, his hands weren't bound. Whether that was because his foe was an idiot or simply didn't have the means to restrain him was unknown. Was he stupid or had he just not come prepared?

Taking all of this into consideration, Church figured the best thing to do for now was avoid angering the person before him. If the opportunity to strike presented itself, he'd take it: stun the enemy just enough to make a beeline for the door.

"Why'd you attack me? There's literally nothing you could have against me, I just arrived in this town yesterday."

Unfortunately, his probing for answers didn't get the results the soldier had been hoping for.

"Nothing I could have against you? The audacity... how dare you even imply such a thing, you swine!"

Church furrowed his brow, more confused than ever. He really had no idea what reason anyone could have to call him a swine at this point. He hadn't even been in the place long enough to do anything other than tick off some drunk guys, and he hardly doubted that swiping someone's drink had somehow led to this moment.

Second to come was an analysis of the person before him. Sure, he couldn't see their face, but he didn't have to. There were other ways of identifying traits. Whoever was before him was young: he was shorter than Church by an inch or two and his voice had cracked a little when he raised it. Whether or not that could be used to his advantage remained to be seen.

Seeing as how denying his involvement in anything by the very nature of his existence wasn't going to work, Church decided he was better off playing along for now. It was the only way to figure out what this kid's beef was.

"Ask your questions then. No guarantee I'll have the answers you want though."

Church could feel the stranger's body tensing before he saw it, though it became obvious as he leaned down to stare directly into Church's face. Naturally, the hood couldn't protect his identity at this proximity, not that it made a difference. Knowing the stranger had sandy blonde hair and hazel eyes didn't make him any less of a stranger. It just confirmed that he was definitely younger than Church. He would have guess about fifteen or sixteen.

"I don't have questions scum, I have statements. I already know everything I need to know, there's nothing valuable I can glean from filth."

Church ignored the insults. He was too lost to really be offended, and he didn't want to antagonize this kid anyway. The longer he talked the more obvious it became that he was emotional and impulsive, not to mention dramatic. It was like this kid had watched every movie with a ranting villain to ever grace the Earth.

"Then say what you need to say."

Obviously irked by Church's calm demeanor in this situation, the boy drew a dagger from within his robes. Yeah, definitely a drama queen, though Church could still grasp the severity of the situation. Fighting someone unarmed was one thing, but when they had a knife and you didn't, that was a serious problem. Being slightly bigger than him didn't really compensate for that disadvantage.

"Tell me, thrall, what are your plans? Why have you come here? Where are you going?"

Church refrained from mentioning that the boy had very clearly stated he didn't have questions not thirty seconds ago. Instead, he focused on the fact that he had no idea what this kid was talking about. He could try to bluff, but bluffing when you didn't even know what the hell was going on was pretty risky. His best bet may have just been to be honest.

"Look, I'm starting to think you might have the wrong person. I seriously don't know what you're talking about."

His unnamed assailant scoffed.

"Such a paltry lie is the best you can muster? I've seen your guilt already. Although... perhaps you really don't know anything. I don't claim to know all the machinations of my foes, but you have not appeared until recently. Perhaps you are merely some uninformed useless pawn..."

Normally Church would have been insulted by all this, but instead he tried to use the notion to his advantage.

"Sounds about right. Whatever you need to know, I don't know. So how about we go our separate ways?"

"Oh, I don't think so. Pawns are weak, but they're still pieces on a board, and you're a pawn that belongs to my prey."

Already sensing the way this was going to go, Church's body tensed in preparation to attack.

"Yeah? Maybe you should have tied me up then."

With that, the soldier launched himself from his crouched position into a full on tackle, using his larger body mass to ram the boy before him into the far wall. After that was a matter of pinning his knife hand down, which wasn't that hard with the superior leverage.

With initiative on his side, Church prepared to throw the first punch, though he wasn't aiming for the face. Only amateurs aimed for the face: there were far better places to strike. With a hook, the soldier aimed for the temple, which would hopefully knock out his foe in single strike.

Unfortunately, Church underestimated his reaction time, and the boy actually turned his face towards the incoming strike to take it to the face instead of somewhere more vital. Honestly, that was pretty metal.

That said, it caused a problem with the fact that his assailant was still conscious, a little dazed, but not enough to stop him from using his free hand to draw another knife. Church was quick to grab a hold of that wrist as well, though it left him with few options to attack.

His enemy, on the other hand, apparently had no such issues. With impressive athleticism and flexibility, the hooded boy leaped enough to raise a knee into Church's abdomen even while pinned to the wall. The blow was enough to separate them, and a follow up kick quickly had Church on his back.

Coming to kneel over him, his attacker slashed down at Church's exposed throat, but his target stopped the blow by grabbing the boy's arm at the wrist. Seeing this, the assailant jabbed his other dagger at him instead. This time Church opted to just punch his enemy in the face and send him reeling backwards.

The two of them separated from their grapple on the ground, and they both took the opportunity to scramble to their feet and prepare to attack or defend, depending on who made the first move. The hooded boy, impatient to kill his target, rushed forward and made a wild swing at Church's neck, one that he easily ducked under, giving him a clear shot at the kid's torso.

Aiming for the diaphragm, Church launched his fist into the hooded boy's gut, knocking the wind out of him and sending him coughing to the ground. Expecting the kid to be down for at least a second, Church turned to run for the door.

As he did so, his feet were knocked out from under him by a sweeping kick from his younger combatant. Falling to the ground, Church was half-impressed and half-annoyed that the kid was so resilient, but it was mostly annoyance. He had to roll away from another stab almost as soon as he hit the ground.

Church tried to get to his feet again, but the kid was was on him halfway through, swinging viciously at the bulk of Church's body instead of aiming for anything in particular. Church pushed himself backwards in an attempt to dodge the attack, and he mostly succeeded. Mostly. Although he managed to get the top part of his body away from the sharp edges of the knife, but his clumsy dodge left his lower body exposed, and he swiftly found his weak knee struck by the heel of his foe's boot.

Uttering a cry of agony, the fatigued soldier crumpled to the ground, his leg unwilling to support his weight any longer after such a blow. He hadn't expected the boy to actually identify that as a weak spot after hitting it just once in their first encounter.

His adversary, seeing that he was victorious, slowly sauntered over and came to stand over Church.

"Such a shame that you have a blatant weakness like that, isn't it? I'd feel bad, if only you weren't undeserving of honorable combat in the first place. Pick your allies more carefully next time, you monster."

Church prepared to defend himself on the ground, even though he was severely disadvantaged. The situation was looking a little grim, but he had to figure something out if he was going to get out of this. Although, maybe he would just wake up to his world if he died? Frankly, he wasn't willing to take that chance.

Moreover, he thankfully didn't have to. Before his hooded assailant could go for a killing blow, the dark room was filled with light from the direction of the doorway. Someone had opened it.

"I suggest you think very carefully about your next move."

Both the boy and Church looked at a now open doorway to see the speaker, one whom they both recognized and both had very different reactions to. Church saw what he wanted and looked up at the ceiling, wondering if it was really necessary for God or fate or whoever to let him get this close to dying before actually saving him.

He found it ironic that he was happy to see someone he had spoken with for about thirty seconds in all his life, but Church was nevertheless glad to see Airi standing in the doorway. Now he just hoped she was as good at fighting as Melona claimed. He was curious to see how a maid of all things did battle.

"A literal angel comes to save me. I'm flattered."

The redhead, clearly exasperated by a number of things, didn't find his praise very flustering. Besides, it confused her. She was very clearly not an angel: she didn't have wings.

"I assure you I'm not an angel."

Church would have clarified that he had meant that in terms of beauty, something that he hadn't thought would be necessary, but he didn't get the chance since his stranger foe with his trembling voice. Whether that trembling was due to fear or rage, Church couldn't tell.

"Y-you! Why now?!"

Casting his gaze between Church on the floor and Airi in the doorway, the boy in question did the math and apparently calculated that he couldn't come out on top. As soon as he came to this conclusion, he dashed behind the crates on the far side of the room, and Church could hear a door being slammed open: apparently there was a side exit.

Honestly, Church was surprised that he fled that quickly. Did that kid know something he didn't? Sure, Airi could muster one mean glare, but that guy had scrammed like he was facing certain death. Well, Melona had said that Airi could fight... maybe people actually knew her? Or maybe there was just some trait that made it obvious someone was a badass, and he didn't know how to see it.

Either way, Church slumped on the ground and sighed in relief, unable to do much else as Airi walked over to him and offered him a hand.

"Are you alright?"

Church took her hand in his own, noting now that she was in the room that Airi had a goddam scythe. Maybe that was what had scared the kid away. One thing was for certain, apparently guns weren't in style in these parts.

Honestly, Church had even more questions that really needed answering now, but for the time being, he figured he was better off showing some gratitude. Leveling a genuine and very happy smile at his savior, Church made sure she knew he appreciated her: kind of ironic considering their almost nonexistent relationship.

"Thank you, Airi. I've just met you and you've already saved my life twice. You've got graciousness to match your beauty, huh?"

Airi told herself that she shouldn't care about the flattery of some stranger, but the earnest way he said it did get her to blush a bit. It was weird, being complimented so openly. In order to hide her embarrassment, she went ahead and pulled the man to his feet, an action that clearly surprised him. He apparently didn't expect that kind of strength out of her. Then again, he didn't know she had inhuman strength on the basis of being inhuman to begin with.

"How did this happen? What did you steal from some passerby this time?"

Clearly referencing his scrap with the thugs the other day, Church felt the need to dismiss the notion.

"I took nothing from that angry child other than some of his dignity. I think he mistook me for someone that had wronged him."

"Well, you have amnesia, right? Maybe you did wrong him, and you just don't remember?"

Recalling the cover story he had told Melona last night, Church figured he had no choice but to concede on that.

"Ah, maybe... how did you find me anyway? I didn't even know you had come out into the town."

Now it was Airi's turn to cover the truth. Thankfully it wasn't that hard.

"I ran into Melona while shopping and she said she lost track of you around here. Thankfully the sounds of your fight drew me here."

Church noted that it was kind of a vague answer, but neither was it particularly unbelievable. That being the case, he decided to accept it.

"Well, guess I'm lucky you're so observant. Really Airi, thank you. I owe you a lot."

Unused to receiving such blatant and earnest gratitude, the redhead swiftly deflected the conversation to something more significant to her.

"Well, if you'd really like to show how grateful you are, there's something I need to talk to you about..."

This chapter has been majorly overhauled, like everything always is after it gets revised several years after the last update... hopefully, this revision overall will make the story much better once everything is finished.