So, one of you is looking forward to Tomoe and Shizuka, and your wish will be granted, soon! If not this chapter, then the next one for sure!

(Thank you to those of you who have given me useful insight, feedback, or encouragement (I.E., Agion, Savaris, etc.) It really helps me to know when I'm doing something right or wrong and what the readers think about it).

The longer Church stayed with his gracious hostess, the more he discovered he had in common with her absent son: including clothing size. Being the overly kind woman she was, there was no way Rachel was going to let Church go about his errand wearing the rags his clothes had been mostly reduced to during the troubles of the past few days.

Fortunately, her son Myles had left behind some of his old clothes, and after a good and thorough wash, Rachel had practically demanded that Church wear them right away. So, clad now in something far less conspicuous than jeans and a shirt made of synthetic fabric, nothing remained of Church's original getup beyond his jacket and his worn, battered shoes. With his tattered jeans and torn shirt stuffed into a knapsack, he now sported only some rough linen pants and an equally rough cotton shirt, the former a dark brown and the latter white. Rachel had also supplied Church with a light brown cloak, just in case it rained during his trip.

All in all, although the clothing was coarse and the clothes of a bygone era didn't match his jacket very well, Church was glad to be wearing something devoid of holes. Upon asking, Rachel had assured him that the apparel wouldn't be missed.

Church had also already met the old horse that he was going to be using as a mount. He thought of using the word 'steed' as a descriptor, but the term hardly fit. Snow was an older white mare that had seen her fair share of toil in her life, but although she looked worn, Rachel had been very sure to let Church know that Snow was still sturdy and strong, for the most part.

The final part of Church's preparations for his trip was the generous quantity of food and water Rachel supplied him with. He had been a little against borrowing the three bags' worth of rations, but, once again, Rachel had assured him that she had plenty of food to spare, since she only had to feed herself and Sera.

When all was said and done, Church felt ready for adventure. Not dragon-slaying or treasure-hunting adventure, but adventure nevertheless. He now stood outside Rachel and Sera's home, strapping down everything he needed onto Snow's saddle, while the family of two watched from the porch. They were very grateful for his attempt to help them out of a tight spot, so both girls had been doubly sure to see him off: even Sera, in all of her debilitating shyness.

"Now Church, are you absolutely sure that you don't need an extra bag of food?"

Church resisted the urge to sigh in exasperation, since he knew that Rachel meant well. "I'm sure, Rachel. I have enough food for both me and Snow. Of course, that might be because I'll let her eat all the carrots..."

Rachel shook her head in very real disappointment. "You shouldn't give them all to Snow, Church. Carrots are good for your eyes, you know."

"I'll be sure to eat a few, if it helps you sleep at night."

Rachel nodded in satisfaction, although she was pretty sure Church had just blatantly lied to her. She found it amusing that a grown man still disliked veggies so strongly. The brief exchange over with, the dark-haired woman cast her gaze into the sky. Gray clouds still loomed overhead, leftovers from the earlier storm. There was a high chance that it would rain again.

"Church, if you want to avoid getting wet, you might need to be on your way soon. Either that, or you can stay until the sky clears. Personally I wouldn't mind keeping you for a little longer."

Church glanced up at the sky as well, but he was not nearly as troubled by it as he would have been yesterday. In one of the bags on Snow's back was a tarp large enough to cover him and the horse should things get nasty. And not that he didn't like Rachel and Sera, on the contrary he was quite fond of them, but Church was eager to begin his journey. He'd be more likely to run into his friends, or catch wind of them somehow if he were out and about.

Speaking of which, it suddenly struck Church that this would be the first time since he had arrived in this world where he would be traveling alone. Sure, he had been on his own once or twice, but it had always been for a very short time. With this, Church could be riding around a country he didn't know all by his lonesome for weeks. It was kind of scary, actually. Church didn't know anything about this continent himself, and although he hated to admit it, he was vulnerable without someone around to 'protect' him.

It was a huge blow to Church's pride to squeeze out the word even in his mind. In all of the shit he had gotten himself into, there had always been someone to save him. Naturally that someone had been a girl every time.

There was a certain sting to his masculine pride in knowing that, but Church at least allowed himself some slack. There was no difference between men and women when it came to skill, so it was hardly fair to look down on himself for not having sword experience having grown up in a world with guns and explosives.

Having allayed his own insecurities for the moment, Church realized that Rachel was still waiting for an answer to her offer to stay and wait out the ominous weather. "It'll be fine. Thanks to you, I'm well-prepared for a sudden shower or two. Besides, the sooner I get going, the sooner you guys will be out of trouble."

Rachel looked like she wanted to argue, but she held her tongue. Church imagined that she liked having someone around the age of her son in the house again. She and Sera probably missed him terribly.

As he finished strapping down the last of his supplies to Snow's saddle, Church heaved himself onto the old mare's back, careful to avoid twisting his handicapped knee in any painful way. He turned to face the two wonderful people that had gotten him on his feet and equipped for a new leg of his journey.

"Thank you for all of your generosity, Rachel, Sera. If it weren't for you, I'd be in huge trouble. I promise, I'll get this done in no time, and you guys won't have to worry about a thing. Leave it to me! Oh, and I'll uh... take good care of Snow too."

Rachel and Sera both flashed Church bright smiles, although the older woman was still the only one to talk.

"Thank you for being so kind to us, Church. You have no idea how much your actions are helping us. Please, take good care of yourself."

Sera nodded enthusiastically, clearly wishing Church the same.

Church turned Snow around to face the direction Rachel had told him to go, while waving back to his hostess and her daughter. "I will! And if I see Myles, I'll let him know what a great family he has!"

That elicited the last smiles Church would ever see from those two, although he was actively ignoring that fact as he rode Snow out into the open plains.

So, I guess this would be her.

On top of a rocky outcropping that jutted out from the ground, Irma watched two figures below her. She believed one of them was the emissary from Hinomoto she had been sent to find, but the silver haired woman with her was an unexpected presence. Either way, they certainly seemed to fit the bill: one silver-haired woman with a horned headband and a revealing kunoichi outfit, and another, raven-black-haired woman with a red headband and conservative red and white shrine maiden attire that covered pretty much her entire body. Both of the strangers spoke in a foreign language Irma couldn't recognize, so there was really no reason to assume they weren't from Hinomoto. Of course, it was possible that neither of these women was the one Irma was looking for, but there was a very high chance that they were.

Locating them had been simplicity in itself. Melpha had indeed been able to divine their whereabouts when Irma had asked it of her. Piety was a great way to get the cooperation of heavenly beings on small affairs, and needless to say Melpha was one of the most pious members of the church.

Despite Aldra's more or less command to take her time, Irma had wasted none of it in riding out to the location of her targets. Naturally they hadn't still been there two days after the fact, but for a Fang assassin tracking them from their last known position had been easy.

Now that she had found them, Irma needed some way to determine why they were here in the first place. Naturally she couldn't just walk up and ask. Originally she had hoped eavesdropping would provide her with the answers she sought, but for obvious reasons that was not going to work. Irma would definitely have to take action herself. It was just a matter of waiting for the right opportunity to do it.

As soon as the trip began, Church was met with unforeseen difficulties. The first and most serious of these was the fact that he had no clue how to ride a horse. He had stopped keeping count after the fourth time, but Church knew he had fallen out of the saddle at least half a dozen times in the first three hours of his ride. Thankfully, trial and error had eventually taught Church the basics of balancing on Snow's back, although he was still pretty sure he was doing it wrong.

The second problem was that Church didn't know how to control Snow. The old mare wasn't very responsive to her reins being tugged in any direction, and Church didn't know any magic words to make her move faster, slower, change directions, or any of the important fundamentals. At one point, Snow had stopped walking altogether, and had just stood still in the middle of the grassy plain it trotted through. Oh, Church had a wonderful time trying to fix that problem.

"Forward. Advance. Onward...accelerate. Walk that way. Move. You put one hoof in front of the other..."

Needless to say, nothing had worked, but thankfully Snow had gotten bored of standing still and eventually decided to move again. Fortunately, the mare managed to walk in a straight enough line that Church had reached the first way-point in his journey, that being a small town Rachel had directed him to where he would find a map for further reference regarding the location of the blacksmith's village he was looking for.

On the flip-side, Church had no currency on him, so he had been forced to swipe the map from the street vendor that had been selling it. He felt kind of bad about that, but nothing could be done to avoid it. Beyond that, nothing of note had taken place there. Church had figured out what direction he needed to go next, rested for about an hour, and then continued on his way.

So for the most part, the first few hours of travel were agonizingly boring and frustrating. However, Church got a chance for excitement as he came upon the wall that separated Vance territory from the Queen's lands (He realized now that Vance territory wasn't nearly as large as it looked on a map, as he had reached this point in under eight hours of travel).

It surprised Church that he had gotten here so quickly, all things considered. Of course, as Church checked his recently acquired map again, he realized that Vance castle, and by extension Alabaster Town, was pretty close to the border (Geographically speaking). That being said, Church wondered what was past the castle, further northwest. It was a query that would have to go unanswered though, as right now Church had bigger fish to fry. He knew there were security checks for those coming into the territory, but he didn't know if the same applied to those going out of it.

To answer that question, Church stayed a little ways away from the gate as he watched other travelers go in and out of it. Fortunately for him, the only thing that was checked for those exiting the area was cargo. Since Church had nothing of note among his current belongings, he managed to get through the gate without so much as a second glance.

Well...I guess it's just me from here on out... and this stupid stubborn horse.

All humor aside, Church wondered if he was really making the right choice here. As far as he was concerned, Church had no purpose in this world. Daedalus had told him otherwise, but had never given Church specifics, so he was lost. It was difficult, having no other reason to be somewhere than to just be there. So far, Church had just gone along with whatever his companions were doing. He followed Airi and Melona around as they did whatever it was they did. He exercised in the forest because Alleyne had told him to do so. So far, Church didn't think he had done anything because he knew that was his purpose.

I gotta find something to do with myself. Some sort of cause, besides blindly following others. Right now, I guess it's something as simple as helping a rural family out in the middle of nowhere.

These thoughts of aimlessness haunted Church's mind for many hours as he navigated the foreign country he found himself in. For another six hours, he rode Snow south, away from Vance territory and towards his goal, some village on a mountaintop somewhere. Minus food, bathroom, and 'Holy-shit-my-ass-is-killing-me-better-walk-it-off-breaks', Church rode continuously, long into the evening. To be honest, the feeling of exploration of a new world, without others to guide him, had been exciting enough to keep Church going for hours. However, as he realized how high in the sky the moon was already, the newly christened adventurer decided to stop where he was. Besides, Snow was a labor animal, and although she had done little more than trot all day, she was undoubtedly tired.

At the time when Church decided to stop, he found himself surrounded mostly by rocks. A lot of them jutted out of the ground at weird angles, piquing the Legion Commando's curiosity as to how they had gotten like that. Church took some rope that Rachel had supplied him with and tied Snow around one of the pillars of rock. The old mare flopped down where she was, and after making sure she wasn't dying or anything, Church fed her a few carrots before stretching and waltzing off to explore just a little bit before he went to bed.

He weaved in-between the rocky pillars of the area, fascinated by them. They looked natural in shape, but their positions didn't seem like they could be real. Church probably would have spent quite awhile exploring, but all of that horseback riding, even with a saddle, had his ass hurting like all hell, so he decided he would call it quits early. But as he turned around to return to Snow and set up some sort of suitable sleeping arrangement, something caught Church's eye. Something that didn't belong here... one of these rocks was not like the others, because one of these rocks had something attached to it that the others did not: a woman.

Church froze in his tracks as he stared at the spectacle, trying to make sure he wasn't just seeing things. After all, everything about what he was now seeing was bizarre. For one, the woman in question was half naked, with her pale breasts spilling out into the open due to a lack of clothing to restrict them. She was bleeding from a cut just above said breasts, and she was tied to the pillar of rock behind her, seemingly unconscious.

All of these facts taken together led Church to believe he was hallucinating.

Even so, Church took a tentative step closer to this unconscious stranger, trying to figure out how and why she was tied to a rock, and whether or not she was really out cold on the off chance that he was not just seeing things. It took a great amount of focus to not ogle her completely exposed bust, but somehow Church managed, mostly by focusing on something else. She had beautiful silver hair that flared out in a way that demanded attention, so he did his best to look at that instead of anything lewd. Either way, it all just seemed too random to be actually happening. But no matter how close Church got to this bound woman, she didn't disappear or turn out to be some trick of the light. At the point where Church was close enough to poke her in the arm, he was convinced she was real, which led to another dilemma entirely.

One, why was she tied up? Because she was dangerous, or because she had been subdued by someone with less than honorable intentions? Two, what would happen if Church freed her? Maybe she was a criminal or something, and the authorities would swoop down on him for being an accomplice? Or maybe some thugs would pop out of dark corners to get him too?

Church examined the person in question further, now that he was close, and saw that her breathing was quite heavy, even in her state of unconsciousness. Searching for the cause of it, Church noticed that the woman's pale skin sported several bruises to accompany her sole laceration. The latter looked superficial, but it was bleeding profusely, and Church assumed that it hurt pretty badly. The right side of her face also sported a particularly nasty bruise, and it was easy to assume that this woman had been beaten while subdued.

Emphatic at heart, Church couldn't resist the urge to help this beautiful girl out at this point, even though he knew nothing about her. She could've been dangerous, but Church just had to hope for the best. Besides, even if she did turn out to be a bad person or something, surely she would at least owe him for helping her out of tight spot.

Looking around for anything he could use to sever her bonds, Church spotted a small rock with a particularly jagged edge a few feet from him. He figured that with it, he could saw through the ropes that bound her in such a tantalizing fashion. Church decided to start with the ropes around her legs rather than the ones that wrapped around her sizable and exposed breasts, for the sake of having a little time to mentally prepare himself for cutting through those aforementioned bonds.

Unfortunately, that didn't really work as well as Church had hoped. This silver-haired woman was dressed quite scantly, and her rescuer got an eyeful of her gorgeous pale thighs as he worked to abrade through the ropes that restricted her, never mind the fact that he was eye-level with her rather skimpy underwear. Needless to say, only half of Church's attention was on the job.

Damn, am I really such a pervert that I can't even help a woman without eyeing her like this? No, wait, don't blame yourself! It's their fault for dressing so indecently in the first place! Whatever is going on in this society, I can't be held responsible for enjoying it.

Church was snapped out of his thoughts as the resistance he was fighting suddenly gave way, as he had managed to saw through the first bindings during his inner monologue. Steeling himself for another wondrous sight, the ex-Legion commando moved up to get rid of the rest of the ropes, doing his best to focus on the task and nothing else, especially not the well-endowed and naked chest of the girl he was helping.

He actually managed to do it somehow. In fact, Church was so aware of the girl's body, and by extension, so focused on ignoring it, that he actually got through his job without a single perverted thought. Reverse psychology perhaps?

Either way, the unconscious woman fell into Church's arms as she was released, causing Church to stumble backwards a little before catching her. She was pretty light, but Church sunk to the ground anyway, just because it would be easier to manage her from there. Careful to make sure he wasn't touching anywhere he wasn't supposed to, Church ghosted his fingers over her body in search of further injuries. However, the gash on her torso seemed to be the only exterior wound he could find without removing her clothes, something he was completely unwilling to do for purely ethical reasons. Of course, thinking about her clothes reminded Church that her entire upper body was completely exposed to him, and he quickly covered the woman with her top once again.

Now content with the state of her modesty, Church was about to see if he had anything on him to at least bandage the stranger's wound with, when the person in question shot her hand forward and grabbed her rescuer by the throat. Church did not know if she had just been faking unconsciousness until now or if she had just now regained sense of the world around her, but either he she had a vice grip that put many men to shame.

Of course Church's arms were still free, and there was a number of things he could have done to counter attack. He could have easily tried to break her lock on him by punching her elbow out or even just simply clocking her in the face, but he hoped he could defuse the situation without violence. If the woman had just woken up, it was no surprise that she would be confused and react accordingly. With that in mind, Church tried to talk her out of crushing the life out of him through his neck. It was a wonder he managed to speak at all.

"H-hey! Calm down... I... I-I'm on your side!"

He looked down at the woman currently strangling him, hoping to convey his good intentions, and he was met with gorgeous eyes that were a blend of silver and pale green , ones that seemed more suspicious and questioning than actually hostile. If he hadn't been fighting to breathe, Church probably would have taken the time to tell himself that they were downright gorgeous.

The girl's unique orbs darted about quickly, trying to assess the situation. She concluded with relative ease that this man before her had decided to free her from her bonds, and that he hadn't intended to harm her, or else he would have done so without releasing her in the first place. Having come to that conclusion, she released her iron grip on Church's throat without delay.

"Gomennasai."

Church rubbed his throat as he looked at the girl in confusion. Obviously the look on his face was clear enough for his new acquaintance to realize what was wrong.

The woman looked Church quizzically before a look of understanding came across her and she seemed to internally berate herself. "Ah...I'm sorry."

Church realized now that she had said something foreign the first time, what he assumed was 'sorry.' "Oh, uh... it's fine... that was a natural reaction I suppose..."

Before either one of the strangers could say something further, a new voice rang out form behind Church's back somewhere.

"Shizuka-san!"

Church turned his head back to look at a new arrival, spotting a woman with jet-black hair and the most reasonable outfit he had seen on any woman to date around here. She was quite beautiful, but that characteristic was marred by an angry expression and a wicked sharp katana in her grip. She cast one, angry violet glare at Church, glanced at the girl currently in Church's arms who had yet to say anything, and came to a personal decision.

She charged at Church with her sword at the ready, convinced he had attacked her comrade and friend.

Well, shit.

Yay for Shizuka and Tomoe! And for Church getting a damn horse instead of having to walk everywhere.

As far as the Continent is concerned, I think we all know at this point that its geography was sketchy at best. I don't know how large or small Vance territory is really supposed to be, but for the sake of advancing the story, I got Church out of there in a day. I tried to make it seem more reasonable by saying that Church had rode for hours at that point, but eh... do any of us really care? The answer is no.

Anyway, this chapter is a little short, but AP exams in school are getting closer, so I gotta denote a ton of my time to that. Hope you guys found this chapter enjoyable, and please let me know how it was. Pros, cons, lay it one me, all of your opinions are valid.