OK, this chapter now coincides with the new updates. Feel free to enjoy.

"Hmmm... no."

Airi and Melona stood before Menace in her tiny 'throne' room, having just finished explaining Melona's idea concerning Church from the day before. Unfortunately, it was not working out in the way they had hoped. Airi was not entirely surprised all things considered, but Melona actually was. She thought for sure Menace would accept this plan. Her ego would have loved the willing worship of a decent servant, or so she thought.

"C'mon Menace, think about it; quality over quantity right?"

The ancient Amaran princess looked utterly confused. "I don't think any one servant could possibly be that great..."

"Well sure he could! Like we said before, isn't it more gratifying to have someone worship you willingly than by force?"

As Menace finally caught on to what Melona was saying, she began to smile. "Oh! I see, you thought... don't you know that the people in this city aren't under any sort of spell? I'm not forcing them to stay here."

This earned a look of shock from both Airi and Melona. Who the hell would want to willingly serve Menace of all people? "W-what?! You mean to tell me these people aren't under any sort of duress? Like, even if it's not a spell, you aren't threatening them or anything?"

Menace seemed honestly offended by the implication. "Of course not! I realized after my other failed attempts, not to mention the demise of my original kingdom, that I need followers who actually love me as their ruler. So even though this place is small, everyone is here of their own will. And why not? I've provided them with a safe and stable home in a harsh environment, and I assure you that I am very fair."

Airi personally thought that there were many better places to live than a desert, but instead questioned how Menace had made enough money to erect a city in the first place. Along those lines, where did she get the labor? "How did you even manage this, Menace? There's no way you had a physical hand in actually building anything..."

"Oh, well... I may have used a curse or two to secure a labor force... but that's not important, is it?"

That left the question of money unanswered, but Airi chose to ignore it as she summoned her scythe. Apparently force was going to be the only answer. "You're coming back with us Menace, one way or another."

Melona on the other hand, simply sighed. "Forget it Airi, it's not gonna work. Like I said yesterday, she'll just run away again."

The Princess in question nodded cheekily. "That's right."

"If we keep you restrained until we get back to Master, she'll have a way to force you back into service."

"But will she? If that were the case I would have been put under an obedience spell the moment she brought me back to life, right? And as far as I know Melona isn't under any sort of curse either."

Airi had no answer for that. It was true, that the Swamp Witch was not careless enough to leave her servants unchained if she could help it. So why was Airi the only one under a spell? Surely Melona and Menace weren't immune somehow... did the Witch not trust her? But that made no sense, Airi would give everything for her.

Seeing that she had no answer, Menace continued. "So, what are you going to do Airi? You can try to take me back by force, but even if you subdue me I'll have plenty of chances to escape again on the way back. And I'm too invested here to be convinced to leave."

Since Airi was essentially in charge at the moment, if only because she cared more about the situation, Melona deferred the answer to her. However, the redhead appeared to be completely lost in thought.

Why am I the only one? Does Master really not trust me? Or is there something wrong with me that requires her to take caution? I don't get it... my loyalty is unquestionable! What have I done wrong?

"Uh... Airi?"

Without another word to Menace, Airi spun on her heel to walk out of the room. "Melona, we're leaving."

"What?! Hold on, what about Menace?!"

Strangely, Airi found that she suddenly didn't care about bringing Menace back anymore. The princess' words had brought Airi entirely into doubt. Her loyalty to the Swamp Witch was everything to her; to bring that into question was to question her entire existence. And as long as that question remained unanswered, Airi cared for very little else. She needed to get back to her Master immediately. She needed to know why she was the only one that could apparently not be trusted.

"Forget it. I'm leaving, do what you want."

Stunned, Melona watched as Airi completely abandoned the mission at hand without a second thought. Something that had been said here had greatly affected the wraith. And without her, Melona had no clue what to do about Menace, leading her to simply follow the redhead out of Menace's recently erected miniature palace.

Once outside, Melona caught up to Airi to question her sudden shift in priorities. "Airi, where are you going? The Witch is gonna be super pissed if we don't get Menace back..."

"I don't care. Menace is right, I'm the only one with a spell placed on me to ensure obedience. I need to know why. I would never do anything to place my loyalty in doubt; I would do anything Master asked of me, so I must have an answer!"

"But isn't bringing Menace back something she wants you to do? Actually, how are you even able to leave while under that spell...?"

If Melona's logic made any impact on Airi, it didn't show. The redhead ignored Melona's very valid questions, mostly because she was too wrapped up in thought to care. It didn't even occur to her that, yes, she was effectively disobeying the Swamp Witch by returning to the Swamp without Menace. That may have been fortunate for her though, since her ignorance of that point prevented the rise of even more questions.

Seeing that Airi wasn't going to answer her questions despite how good they were, Melona decided to simply move on. "So uh... what about Church?"

The mention of that man stopped Airi in her tracks, as this question actually registered. Why was Melona so insistent of keeping contact with him? Why the hell did she even care? It was completely out of character for her.

"What about him? We don't need him anymore, let's just leave him. We've done enough for him as it is."

Logically Melona couldn't refute that Airi was suggesting a practical course of action, but for some reason the idea didn't sit well with her. It was unusual for her to feel attachment to anyone, but in a way, Melona felt somewhat attached to Church already, even though she had only known him for a very short time. Granted, it was more of a 'favorite toy' kind of attachment than a friendly one, but at least it was there.

"Well, I kinda already told him that he could come with us..."

Growing increasingly frustrated with Melona's persistence, Airi couldn't suppress a glare in her direction. "So what? You lied. You're a slime, you deceive people by changing into other forms. Your entire existence is lying to people, what's one more?"

While Airi's words created more than a little indignation in the woman they were directed at, Melona settled for simply getting one over on her compatriot. With an idea immediately coming to mind, Melona couldn't hold back a victorious smirk. "Well then, you go run off to the Swamp or whatever, and I'll just let Church come with me. After all, we aren't a package deal, so you do what you want and I'll do what I want. No guarantees I'll make it back anytime soon though... or ever, for that matter..."

Airi was momentarily lost for words as she processed what Melona had said. "...what?"

"I already told him he could come along, so if you run off it'll just be me and him. Simple solutions for simple problems."

Unfortunately it was anything but simple for Airi. She had given up Menace as a lost cause, but if she went back to the Swamp without Menace or Melona, she would definitely be punished to the maximum extent. Maybe even sent back to Hell, and that was absolutely out of the question. If Melona ran off on her own because Airi wasn't keeping an eye on her...

"You can't be serious. Are you blackmailing me over this stupid man we barely know?"

Melona nodded, smile never dropping. "Yeah, pretty much. So what's it gonna be?"

Airi's hands balled into fists as she prepared to give her answer. It seemed like the whole world was against her today.

One of Church's least favorite forms of physical exercise was long distance walking and running. With his knee taken into consideration, the reason for that was obvious.

His distaste for this exercise was brought to the fore of his mind because he had been walking for several hours at this point, after being collected from the inn by an enthusiastic Melona and a severely irritated Airi. To his fortune, he had been told that Menace would not be coming along with them, and that therefore, he wouldn't have to fake a very strange relationship with the woman.

He had been worried that such news implied that he would not be allowed to go with them, but Church had been surprised to find that nothing about that had changed. Melona had cheerfully informed him that he was free to accompany the duo for as long as he liked. Airi, on the other hand, didn't seem nearly as pleased about the idea.

As for him, even though Church had the freedom to choose not to, he had been all too happy to accept Melona's proposal. After all, he was lost in a strange location where he knew practically no one; the most logical course of action was to stick with people he at least knew to some extent. Besides, he had no course of action in mind at the moment, so why not accompany the two beautiful women that were willing to accept his company until that changed?

Still, he hadn't walked more than a few miles in years, since all deployments on radioactive Earth were airborne. He wasn't used to long treks and he was growing tired fast, never mind how sore his knee was. The throbbing pain had him stopping every few minutes to rest, causing him to fall pretty far behind his new traveling companions.

"Hey, Church! You're way too far behind! Speed it up will you?"

The accosted male glared at his two female companions on the road ahead of him, both looking back at him in dismay as he failed to keep up with their steady pace. For obvious reasons (for her at least) Airi's expression was much more irritable than Melona's. After all, she wanted to get back to the Swamp Witch as soon as possible. Having to go at Melona's leisurely pace was bad enough, but to go even slower than that? It was ridiculous, considering that she could have been back in the Swamp in a mere day or two if she just flew there. But unfortunately she couldn't leave Melona to her own devices.

Of course, Church didn't know any of that. He just assumed that Airi wasn't very fond of him.

I see now that being permanently injured has no bearing on the speed at which I'm expected to move. I knew women were heartless, but geez...

Church returned his gaze to the ground as he continued to catch his breath and rest his throbbing knee. The newly formed trio had left the desert city around five hours ago, and had been traveling on a dirt road since. Church didn't really mind the physical exertion since he probably needed it, but he felt like he was a burden to his new found acquaintances. The group was just now reaching the outskirts of the desert itself, where the first real leafy green vegetation was starting to show. Church thought that at a normal pace, they would've made it much farther than this. Surely he was at fault for slowing them down.

Still, it was a good thing the city Menace had erected was closer to the edge of the desert than the center. It was the only reason they had managed to get away from the burning sand within a day. She had probably chosen to establish it there for trade purposes...

Further ahead, Airi was growing impatient as she waited for what was possibly the slowest person she had ever known. She had places to be, and Church wasn't helping her get there any faster. With a sigh of frustration, the redhead began walking back towards Church in order to prod him forward. She had half a mind to do it with the tip of her scythe, but Airi immediately felt a little guilty for thinking such a thing.

Why am I being so hateful? It's not like me at all... things have been pretty frustrating lately, but I could at least wait to take it out on him until he actually does something...

With that in mind, Airi tried to be a little less hostile than she had been so far, even going so far as to put a slight smile on her face. She was generally a kind person, it was just an irritable time for her...

"Hey, are you gonna sit there all day? We're on a schedule here."

Church sighed mentally as he registered Airi's voice in his ears. Surely she was about to reprimand him for being so slow. Guess it was only fair. That being the case, he looked up to address her.

"Just a moment, I-?"

He paused mid sentence, thrown off by an unexpected development. Airi had her hand outstretched, and she was patiently waiting for Church to take it in his own. He looked at her softly smiling face -which also confused him, as he had only seen Airi angry or irritated in their time together- and then back to her hand twice. Surely she didn't really want him to do that? As far as Church knew, Airi really didn't like having physical contact with him, for any reason.

Seeing Church's hesitation, Airi pressed on in what Church could've sworn was an almost tender voice.

"Look, if you need a little help just say so. It's better than you being stuck back here."

Church was too busy panicking to take note of the half-joking gibe Airi had made at the end of her offer. In fact, he was about to make a foolish mistake that most guys do when confronted like this; saying no even though he would've loved to accept her help.

He pushed himself away from the proffered hand before giving a terribly stupid reply to Airi's kind offer.

"I-it's OK. I'm fine. I uh… don't really need your help, Airi."

Church walked past the girl without accepting her help, silently berating himself the whole while.

Damn it! That was a perfect opportunity and I just blew it! I mean she was willing and smiling and everything! Not to mention that answer sounded a lot worse than I had intended... kinda made me sound like a ass.

He glanced back at Airi, but he whipped his head back around when he noticed her glaring daggers at him.

And now she's mad again… there's no way I'm going to survive long enough to get back home...

Church decided to try and ignore Airi for the moment. Dwelling on the unpleasant things that she could do to him was bad for his mental health. Instead he jogged a little to catch up to Melona so he could ask her a question.

"Hey, Melona? How come Menace didn't come with us?"

The obnoxiously pink-clad girl just waved her hand in dismissal, answering without even looking at him. She had come up with several excuses for this question already.

"Oh, some boring political stuff was apparently more worthwhile than hanging out with us. She's totally obsessed with restoring her dead kingdom. Besides, are you complaining? Did you really wanna grovel and lick her feet or something?"

Church grimaced, but made no comment, as he was completely lost at the mention of dead kingdoms. Melona took his silence as a sign to continue, looking over to her male travel buddy and putting on that unnerving smile Church had come to find just a little bit worrisome.

"But I'm glad she didn't come. It just means I have you all to myself, right~?"

Church just cocked an eyebrow in reply. He didn't really know what she was talking about, and he was pretty sure he didn't want to. Either way, he was certain that Melona didn't mean that in a particularly positive way.

His reaction caused Melona to move forward a little and pinch his cheeks. "Aw Church, you're so cute when you scowl like that!"

The physically accosted man pulled Melona's hands off of him without a second thought. "Please don't do that again. And besides, I wasn't scowling. That was my normal face!"

The pinkette backed up a little and looked at him with doubt. "Come on, Church. You're telling me that your normal face is always a frown like that?"

Church shrugged and scratched his head. "Yeah, I guess. Is it really that important?"

His conversational partner responded excitedly. "Of course it is! Frowning like that all the time is terrible! You need to smile more, or you'll scare away everyone who sees you!"

The bunny eared loudmouth stopped in her tracks for a second and put a finger on her chin.

"That being said, I wonder what could wipe that frown off your face? Hmm..."

After a few moments of thought, Melona snapped her fingers in revelation. "Oh, I know!"

Without warning, she moved closer and put her arms around Church's neck, pressing her body against him seductively. "How about a bath with Airi this evening? That would make you happy, wouldn't it?"

Church nearly fell over backwards at the mention of it. He broke Melona's grasp and turned away as quickly as possible to hide the embarrassment on his face at imagining such a thing.

"N-n-no! Definitely not! Something like that wouldn't make me happy at all!"

Melona had a bewildered look on her face. "Oh? I thought you would like that for sure…" Then she smiled perversely and made a seductive pose. "Maybe you wanna take a bath me instead? I mean, my boobs are so much bigger."

Church just ran ahead off his companions while shouting back over his shoulder.

"No! I don't want a bath with either of you!"

The pink slime yelled after him. "Aw, come on Church, that's mean! I can understand not wanting one with Airi, she's a bitch, but me? I'm attractive right?"

Melona was about to chase after Church so she could force a confession out of him when she felt a malicious presence behind her. She turned around to face a very angry-looking wraith.

"A bitch, huh?"

Ah, damn... I thought she had stopped listening a long time ago...

Airi leaned against the willow tree that was near the place the recently formed group had decided to camp for the night. It was near a small pond, with cat-tails growing here and there, and covered in grass all over. It amazed her that somewhere with so much flourishing nature was within a day's walk from the desert. Of course, if Church hadn't picked up the pace earlier this morning, they probably wouldn't have made it his far yet. Airi wasn't sure why he had decided to speed up either. Church had moved faster, but he had made sure to stay ahead of Airi at all times. Was he trying to avoid her? Did what happened this morning really bother him that much? Or was it just her in general?

I suppose he is somewhat justified, all things considered. I haven't been very friendly so far... though I tried this morning, and it hardly made a difference! Why should I care either way? I'm only here to make sure Melona doesn't run off, what her tag along thinks of me doesn't matter...

Though she thought as much, Airi honestly felt a little differently. While she was a wraith, a demon, and even a servant of a terrible being, Airi had always been a relatively good person, or at least she had been in life. And even though that life was over, there was no reason she had to become cruel and heartless, right? She could be one of the 'bad guys' without actually being a bad person, couldn't she?

She decided that yes, she most certainly could. There was no need to forsake who she used to be just because her situation was so different now. With that in mind, she figured it wouldn't be so bad to at least try and be nice to Church again. Maybe she wouldn't feel so hostile about him if she gave it a shot.

However, Airi wasn't sure where Church had gone. She knew he wasn't with Melona, who had fallen asleep under another tree about an hour ago (She hadn't even known that Slimes needed sleep). And as she had already noted to herself, Church seemed to be avoiding her, so he wasn't in her general vicinity.

He must have actually disappeared before the sun had set, because Airi couldn't recall seeing him roaming around the tiny clearing earlier. And now it was about evening… where had he run off to? She didn't want to end up saving him from something petty again. Airi decided that it would be best to look for him, lest he get killed by tripping into a tree and breaking his neck.

Airi didn't really have anything better to do anyway. Figuring that Church would probably be somewhere in the general vicinity of the camp, Airi was about to fly and look for him from above, but decided against it after a few seconds of consideration. She still didn't really want Church to know about her or Melona's…unique circumstances. There was no need to reveal anything that would dispel his ignorance, and besides, Melona would probably become even more annoying than usual if Airi scared off her newest plaything.

She decided to check the pond the trio had sighted earlier first, as it seemed like a likely place for him to be, being the only noteworthy feature around this empty place. Having decided to head in that direction, Airi strolled quietly through the copse of trees that separated the clearing she had occupied and the pond she was heading to. It was actually a pretty small section of trees, but since they were all willows, the wraith couldn't see the pond on the other side: the low hanging branches formed a dense wall of green that was impossible for her eyes to penetrate. She could've gone into her ethereal form to walk right through the branches, but instead she just pushed through them normally, letting the arms of nature embrace her body. Airi had little love for aesthetic things these days, but she did have a soft spot for nature. After all, her favorite dream as a child had revolved around beautiful scenery.

She used to have that wonderful dream all the time back when she was alive. She would be in a secluded grove that had an amazingly huge waterfall that poured into a beautiful, clear lake. The banks of the lake were covered in soft white sand, and beyond that, luscious green grass and every type of tree she could imagine. And the area was filled with all kinds of life. Vibrant red and blue birds would chirp among themselves in the trees, and stalwart elk would sit on the lake's edge, watching the waterfall with almost human intensity. On a small hill just a little ways off from the bank was a dogwood tree, the only one in the whole grove.

In this dream, Airi would always be sitting under that tree, staring off into the lake. But she was never alone. Every time she had that dream, there was someone with her. A boy, who was always by her side, holding her and making her laugh, and letting her sleep on his lap. She couldn't remember much about the boy, except that he had really deep blue eyes, and that every time she got older in real life and then had the dream again, the boy would have aged along with her.

Airi smiled to herself as she briefly reminisced about her favorite fantasy in the past: to live in that beautiful grove with that wonderful boy forever and always be happy. But reality was not so kind. Since her death and resurrection, Airi had never had that dream again. On the contrary, now all she had was nightmares. The redhead could scarcely go a single night without her head being filled with the terrors of Hell, which she had briefly experienced before the Swamp Witch had resurrected her to serve. Airi had stopped waking up in tears years ago, but she still squirmed in her sleep on occasion, according to Melona. Moe than once she had wished that her supernatural form didn't require sleep, but unfortunately her level of presence in the physical world created equally physical demands.

The wraith buried her dire musings in a dark corner within her mind, hoping to keep them away from the surface. Broken out of her reverie, the ghost-maid looked around to see that she was still in the copse of willow trees, but that there was far less light than there had been earlier. How long had she been standing there?

Deciding that it didn't really matter, Airi pushed through the last of the weary trees and came into view of the pond, which was unfortunately dirty and nasty and corrupted with pond scum. That aside, her intuition had been correct. Church was indeed on the pond's edge, sitting with his legs folded on a large rock half sunken into the wet ground surrounding the pond. He was intently studying something in his hands, but Airi couldn't see what it was from behind him.

She knew it would be rude to sneak up on him, but Airi was sure that Church would hide whatever was in his hands if he knew she was there, and she really wanted to know what it was. She decided to levitate ever so slightly above the ground to avoid making noise, and slowly hovered towards the seemingly clueless cross-legged man before her. Being nosy was usually Melona's job, but Airi indulged in it from time to time.

She was just about to peek over Church's shoulder when he almost managed to scare her. "Nice try, but you can't sneak up on me."

Airi put her feet back on the ground before Church realized the abnormality. She was embarrassed to have been caught sneaking up on him like that, and she was also afraid that Church would get the wrong idea.

"H-how did you know I was there?"

Church didn't even look at her. "Psychic sixth sense, of course. Either way, why were you sneaking up on me?"

The questioned redhead scratched the back of her head while she thought of an excuse. If she told him the real reason, he would think she was nosy. Granted, she had been acting nosy, but that was beside the point.

"Well, um… you disappeared without telling anyone, and I wanted to make sure you hadn't broken your leg out here or something..."

"Oh, so you were actually worried about me?"

Airi frowned as she tried to think of a retort, since Church was clearly teasing her.

"Yes. I'm not entirely heartless, contrary to what you might believe."

Church glanced at her for just a second before answering. "I didn't think that. I just didn't think you really cared much for me specifically."

Averting her gaze, Airi tried to come up with a suitable answer that portrayed her reason for being there most accurately. "It's not that I dislike you specifically... but you are a stranger. Surely you don't expect us to be best friends this soon?"

"Are you implying that we could be eventually?"

Unsure if he was making another joke or not, Airi decided to ignore his question. "So, are you just sitting around out here? If you want to be alone I don't mind leaving."

Worried that she might actually leave, Church was quick to reveal his motives. "Just looking at an old picture of mine. Nothing important really. Kinda surprised it came with me..."

While she normally wouldn't have really cared, Airi was actually a little curious about this 'picture.' She hadn't seen a painting small enough to be hidden behind someone's torso before. Besides, she figured that asking about it was the polite thing to do.

"A picture? You mean like... a painting?"

Church just nodded, still staring off into pond's waters.

"Um, may I see it? If you're okay with it, I mean."

The man hesitated for a moment before turning to her and handing over a small slip of paper. "Be careful with it please."

Airi gently took the paper from him and examined it. Instead of the image itself, she was first fascinated by how small it was. The image itself was clear and amazingly well painted, but she didn't know how any artist could paint a picture so well on such a tiny canvas.

The man that had handed it to her spoke up when he noticed her fascination. "It's called a photo. Have you never seen one before?"

Airi was a little irritated that Church knew something she didn't, but it wasn't a big deal. It was just a picture, after all. "No. I haven't seen anything like it before. How do you make it?"

Church grinned just a little. "I, uh…don't really know how it works exactly. But I guess you could call it a special type of painting? Or it's close enough to one, I suppose."

The still confused maid decided to forget about the details and just look at the actual picture. The image was of a smiling, brown- haired, blue eyed boy in the exact red jacket Church was wearing now, and a slightly shorter girl with long brown hair and vivid green eyes. The girl had her arms wrapped around the boy's neck and was sticking out her tongue, as if she was trying to mock whoever was was looking at the picture.

"Is this you, Church? Well, I mean, it'd make sense if it was, but…"

She looked away from the painting to see Church with his eyes closed and head propped against his hand. Maybe he was more tired than he looked. She was about to tap him on the shoulder, but he answered her before she could do so.

"Don't worry, I'm still awake. Yeah, that was me about four years ago."

"And the girl…?"

Church took a few seconds before he decided to answer. "…My sister. Well, cousin, actually, but she and I are so close that it's like we were born siblings. I... really miss her."

Airi wondered if she should push Church's personal life any farther. She wanted to know more, but she was afraid she might ask an inappropriate question and make Church uncomfortable. She decided she would find out more later, since she had decided to at least try and be kind.

"Thank you for letting me see it."

She handed the picture back to him, which he quietly tucked into his jacket before returning his gaze to the still waters of the pond. Church had honestly been surprised to find that the photo was in his jacket pocket; he had always kept it there back on New Eden, but he hadn't expected it to come with his clothes.

Airi couldn't help but notice how depressed he looked. She knew she shouldn't honestly care, but again, she knew how it felt to be ignored when in such a mood. It couldn't hurt to at least try and make him feel a little better, could it?

"Church? Can I tell you something?"

The man didn't even look back at her, and his response was hardly there. "Sure."

Airi walked around the rock Church was sitting on so that she was standing in front of him. She wanted his full attention, so she didn't have to do this twice. She was already conflicted about doing it as it was.

"Look, Church. I just wanted to say that, I'm… sorry. I'm sorry for having been so harsh to you these past few days. It's been pretty stressful for me lately, and I took it out on you to some extent. I apologize for being unfair to you."

Church cocked an eyebrow at her, honestly surprised that she was doing this. Maybe he had just met her on a bad day, because she did seem much nicer now. "Well, I... I mean, I understand. I'm sure I was a big detour for you, whatever you were doing that day. If anything, I should apologize for being a burden, and thankful that you were willing to help me and even let me tag along despite being a stranger..."

Airi mentally lamented. She was trying to be nice, but more for herself than for him. To have him act like this all of a sudden made her feel bad for being kind for solely selfish reasons. It was unfair to not even give him a chance, right?

"Alright, that's enough of that... let's just agree that we started out on the wrong foot, OK? Why don't we forget about the past few days and just start from scratch?"

Surprised that she had suggested such a thing herself, Airi briefly wondered what on earth she was doing. She was being unnecessarily friendly with a stranger, but found that it didn't feel all that wrong. It felt kind of nice.

As for Church, he was quite happy with this new turn of events. "Well, will it be alright if I remember the good stuff? You taking care of me and all..."

Airi felt a little guilty about taking credit for Melona's efforts, but she couldn't quite tell Church that he had been healed by slime. "I suppose if you want to... and I'll try to only keep the good things in mind about you as well."

"Such as?"

The redhead was actually lost for a moment as she looked back for something positive that she had thought about him. Almost all of her thoughts had been distinctly negative... except for when he had called her beautiful when they first met. That had certainly made her happy.

With a slight blush coming to her cheeks, Airi decided against revealing her thoughts to Church. "I'll leave it to your imagination."

"Well, either way, I look forward to making a better first impression on you, Airi."

"Just don't mess it up this time."

Church smiled, all too pleased with the idea of another chance with the beautiful woman before him. "Not in my wildest dreams."

There we go, this update is now complete.