Well, it's been a long time: far longer than under any normal circumstances I would allow myself before updating again. By my estimation, it's been about a month or more since this story, or any of them for that matter, have been updated. Unfortunately, the long wait was out of my control.

This past month had been pretty hectic, as the military has decided to relocate the family again, and even though we've been more or less settled in our new house, our internet provider has been dragging their feet and left me without internet for way too long, which of course, prevented me from updating.

Now I'd like to make this chapter a little longer to try and compensate for the long wait, but most of my other stories need to be updated as well, so that may not be possible at this time.

Church was not a morning person. He never had been, and never would be. That being the case, when he was rudely awakened by a ray of morning sunlight, his first reaction was to roll over and throw his arm over his eyes. As a soldier, he was used to having to wake up early, but waking up before noon if he didn't absolutely have to was a highly unlikely prospect.

But naturally his own qualms about being an early-riser didn't apply to everyone. Church could hear the shuffling of his two female acquaintances as they decided to get up for the day, but made no move to do so himself. One of the girls took a few footsteps towards him, before Shizuka's voice pierced the silence Church had been hoping to return to sleep in.

"Church? Hey, I know you're awake."

Church refrained from making any movement and only offered some unintelligible muttering as a response, amusing the silver-haired ninja as she prodded the man in the side with her toe. "Seriously… c'mon, get up…"

This time the ex-soldier rolled over and made some sort of airy wave with his hand, as if to brush aside Shizuka's words. "…five more minutes… or fifty maybe…"

The ex-Kouma ninja just sighed and glanced back towards Tomoe, who was already making her way towards the two women's destination. "Aw, too bad. And I was gonna invite him to go bathe with us in that hot spring we found the other day too."

Tomoe made a scandalized grimace, knowing full well that her longtime friend was probably only half-joking. "Shizuka-san, that's not really something… I mean I don't think our relationship with him is on that level…"

Shizuka cocked an eyebrow at Tomoe's poor choice of words, amused by its implications. "So are you saying that if he was on that level you'd be OK with him coming along and seeing you naked? Well, I guess it'd be fair exchange all things considered..."

Tomoe's sexually naïve mind couldn't handle the thought of such a thing, and her entire face nearly turned as red as the bottom half of her outfit. "W-w-what?! I could never, I mean, I wouldn't allow such a thing! N-never!"

"But Tomoe-sama, you're gonna die a virgin thinking like that…"

"Chastity is perfectly fine with me!"

Shizuka folded her arms behind her head and rolled her eyes, smiling to herself all the while. One day she was going to have to corrupt Tomoe's mind for the better.

Unfortunately for Church, he was unable to get himself back to sleep, no matter how much he willed himself to do so. So about thirty minutes after Tomoe and Shizuka left to do whatever they had in mind, Church grudgingly pushed himself out of his more or less comfortable sleeping position to glance around his resting place.

Naturally he and Snow where the only living things around, although Church was afraid the old mare might be dead with how still she was in her sleep. Upon careful observation, Snow was proven to be alive, even though the horse's breaths were barely noticeable from even a slight distance.

Church let out a yawn as he stood to stretch out a night's worth of stiff muscles. He tried to look at the sky and determine what time it was, but considering that he didn't know when the sun rose in this region, that was impossible. But whatever time it was, he figured it was too early to get back on the road, and either way, he didn't really want to cut out on Tomoe and Shizuka just like that, without saying goodbye or anything.

Of course, he had no clue where they went… but some exercise would do him some good anyway, so Church figured he would take his time to look around for the two ladies. He made sure to leave some carrots within Snow's reach in case she woke up before he returned, then set off in a random direction to both stretch his legs and look for last night's feminine company.

Church roamed around the craggy area for roughly ten or fifteen minutes before he caught the sound of Shizuka's rather cheery voice carried through the air. He couldn't make out what she was saying, but obviously she couldn't have been too far away from where he was standing amidst the spires of brown rocks.

Without any real thought going into the decision, Church began to move in the direction he thought he could hear the buxom ninja's voice coming from. It didn't even occur to him that perhaps she and Tomoe had left the campsite to do something private. Then again, even if the thought had occurred to him, Church probably would have misinterpreted such a thing in scandalous ways.

But Church's cognitive abilities weren't completely functional within an hour of waking up, so even when he could see steam emanating from somewhere up ahead, the possibility of something being amiss didn't even occur to him. Everything seemed perfectly fine within his sleep-fogged mind, right up until he turned the corner of another outcropping of rock and found who he was looking for.

"Hey, what are you two…doing…"

Church's words died in his throat as his brain failed to form the rest of the sentence. The two girls he was looking for where here, yes. They were also stark naked, with Shizuka's eyes locked onto the intruder with surprise and Tomoe staring wide-eyed at that same man with absolute horror.

The two women were in a hot spring, bathing, and both unprepared for the new arrival, meaning they were completely exposed and the natural reflex of covering themselves hadn't kicked in just yet. That would only last a few seconds of course, but it felt like an eternity for the male intruder on the scene, who couldn't tear his eyes away from the spectacle.

Both Tomoe and Shizuka were sitting on the edge of the pool of water rather than in it. Shizuka had been undoing the bandage tied around her chest from last night's injury, exposing her beautifully pale breasts to someone who was glad to be seeing them twice in two days, at least on the inside. Tomoe's back was towards Church, so instead of getting a glimpse of her no doubt awesome assets he got a great view of her ass, pressed against the flat rocks on the side of the hot spring. Church quickly marked this day as one of the best he had experienced in life thus far, despite having just began.

"Getting an eyeful, Church?"

Snapped back to reality by Shizuka's flirty voice, Church's eyes reflexively flew to her face, unable to form a rational sentence but still able to catch the slight blush on the woman's cheeks, made all the more obvious by the pale tone of her skin. Still, even if she were the more shameless of the two girls before him, Shizuka nevertheless put an arm up to cover the most tantalizing parts of her body. Tomoe opted for hopping into the water, still looking completely mortified.

Church knew he had to say something to dispel whatever assumptions the two girls had just made about him, but instead of a sentence, most of his apologetic words spilled out of his mouth in an unrefined stream.

"No, I mean yes I did but I didn't really mean to I didn't know you two were like this and I wasn't thinking and oh God I'm sorry please I didn't mean to do this I just-"

Shizuka cut him off before Church could ramble any longer, having gotten the point already. "It's alright Church, we get it. Well, I do at least."

She had figured that this was all an accident. Not only did Church not seem the type to do something so low and distasteful, but he also gave himself away the moment he showed up, which no one in the right mind would do… still, Shizuka couldn't help but wonder just whose body he had enjoyed seeing the most.

Wishing it were her instead of Tomoe was not a new feeling by any means… but for some reason having Church choose her over Tomoe felt more significant than having any other guy off the streets do it. Maybe it had something to do with what he had said to her the night before. Before Shizuka could only speculate on whether or not other people thought she was as attractive as the woman she was always compared to. But Church had made it perfectly clear he thought she was, so Shizuka found herself really wanting him to think the same now, having seen both her and Tomoe like they were.

She had half a mind to ask, but decided against it, feeling somewhat ashamed to even be thinking in such a way. She was supposed to be Tomoe's friend. Having the need to one-up her because of some petty jealousy issues… how pathetic was that?

By this time Church had already turned his back to the girls to avoid any more mishaps, although he couldn't decide whether he should just run to prevent the situation from escalating or stay and apologize further for his faux pas.

Afraid that he had satisfied Shizuka with his hastily uttered apology earlier but not Tomoe, Church chose the latter option. "I-I'm really sorry, I had no idea…"

Sensing that he was speaking to her more than to her friend, Tomoe fought down her embarrassment so she could say something without stuttering, although she didn't manage to do that completely. "It's a-alright Church… I-I'm sure you didn't mean to…"

"I uh… I'm just gonna, you know, go…"

It didn't take long for Shizuka to bury her controversial feelings under her usual flirty and amiable tune. "Don't be a stranger when we get back Church, you can always ask if you want more."

Tomoe hastened to counter that statement, but Church had already walked off, probably in an embarrassed and more than likely slightly aroused haze. Shizuka watched him go before looking down at the fresh wound just above her left breast, left by that assassin last night. It was still fresh and pretty tender, and although the cut was shallow, it was probably going to scar… she wondered if something like that would bother him?

Even a full hour after the incident, the girls had yet to finish their morning bathing session, giving Church plenty of time to try and sort his thoughts out as he tried to prepare himself and Snow for the second day of travel. Unfortunately, the tasks of strapping on bags or straightening the saddle on Snow were too mundane and menial to distract Church from his more colorful thoughts.

The guilt of having accidentally dropped in on Tomoe and Shizuka at such an inappropriate time had long since worn off, having been replaced with content satisfaction at his luck in seeing such a thing. Church was a good, moral guy all around, but he was a full-grown straight man, and there was no way he could ignore the sight of two beautiful and exotic women in the nude. It was just impossible.

Maybe that made him a pervert, but at least he kept it to himself… as long as he didn't try to purposefully catch girls in situations like that, he couldn't really be faulted for enjoying what he saw by accident, right?

Church decided to go with that, mostly because it made him feel less guilty about the thoughts he was entertaining right now, which was comparing Shizuka and Tomoe's equally awesome bodies to one another. It was almost impossible to really decide if either woman was sexier than the other… Tomoe had a very refined and elegant beauty about her while Shizuka seemed to have more of a risqué appeal. Not to mention that Church was really into the silver hair. He used to associate that kind of color with old women, but when it was sported by a young lady like Shizuka, it was really unique and alluring.

Church shook his head as if to clear it of what he was thinking.

Alright, c'mon: it's not just about the body, personality and character is a lot more important. A beautiful body with a terrible person on the inside is worthless. But that doesn't really help, considering that Tomoe and Shizuka are both really great people as far as I know, and they're equally beautiful on the outside too. Hmm… maybe I should just appreciate them individually? That sounds good, there's no need to compare people, that's just shallow…

Church nodded to himself, satisfied with the conclusion he had reached in holding Tomoe and Shizuka in equal standing both superficially and as people. Everyone had something unique about them to appreciate right? Unfortunately, Church's inner soliloquy distracted him from the outside world long enough to be approached without noticing it.

He didn't even register any kind of threat at all until it was far too late to do anything about it. The fact that he was in a dire predicament didn't occur to him until the razor edge of a dagger of some sort was pressed against his lower spine.

"Don't move. Don't say anything."

Church's first reaction was to inwardly berate himself for being so oblivious to his surroundings. In this one moment he admitted that he had really let himself go. To be ambushed like this as a sniper was absolutely pathetic. To be fair he had been away from the occupation for a decent amount of time and he was far from a combat scenario here, but the fact still stood.

He always knew women would be the death of him, but Church didn't think it would be through distraction when they weren't even around. Then again, the person who had him at knife-point was a woman too, and by the tone of her voice; a tone Church recognized as one most hardened killers used when they weren't playing around, his death at the hands of a woman may not be too far off.

He said nothing and didn't move an inch, as he had been told. He didn't doubt for a minute that this woman would kill him if he gave her a reason to. Instead, his captor filled the silence, albeit with hushed, whispered words.

"Cooperate with me and I won't have to kill you. I am here to ask questions only."

Church questioned the wisdom of saying anything at all, but he figured as long as he didn't yell for help or anything he wouldn't find himself suddenly paralyzed. "Fire away then."

"I thought I told you not to say anything."

"I have to speak to answer a question."

"And did I ask you a question?"

Church knew it was unwise to try and mess with his captor, but any way he could stall for time increased the chances of Tomoe or Shizuka showing up to help him out of this mess. His life was hanging on a thread here, but Church figured that he'd bank on the fact that he was needed alive, for now at least.

"Well you did now."

Behind him, Irma half smirked and half grimaced. On one hand she didn't like being played like that, especially when she was in the position of power here. On the other, this man's witty manipulation of the conversation between the two of them reminded her of Aldra's own prowess when it came to the same thing.

"Don't push your luck. You'll only be valuable for so long."

Church didn't say anything else, unwilling to test his captor's resolve more than he had thus far. Instead, he was just waited until she decided to begin her interrogation. Before she asked her first question, Church felt a palm pressed against his back, about where his heart was. Whatever purpose this served eluded him.

"For what purpose did you arrive at this location and aid those two last night?"

This person probably didn't know Tomoe and Shizuka by name, but it was obvious that she was referring to them regardless. "I stopped in this region to rest my horse on my way to a town in the mountains. I came across one of the women in trouble last night and decided to be an upstanding guy and help her out."

"You had no knowledge of what was transpiring here before your arrival? No idea that there was a conflict occurring?"

"None whatsoever."

Church was surprised that this woman didn't press these questions further. It was like she was just accepting all of his answers at face value… unless she could tell that he really was telling the truth somehow. He'd answer her next question with a lie, just to double-check…

"And should I confront them again, will you interfere?"

Church knew that at this point he most certainly would. "No I wouldn't. It's none of my concern."

Irma could feel her captive's heartbeat accelerate very slightly; signaling the man's significant control over his body. But there were other minute signs of deception. His words were flat and even, lacking the amiable tone he used with her targets last night or the sarcastic one he used with her. His breathing evened out into something less natural, more like an archer focusing for a shot than a man breathing at a usual rate.

"I would suggest that you don't lie to me. At this point, you have almost zero value as a hostage; you aren't privy to what's going on here and you did not come for the sole purpose of assisting my enemies. That makes you nothing more than a bystander who could potentially get in my way."

There was a strange feeling of deja vu as Church listened to this; it all sounded awfully familiar, maybe something he had been told by a drill sergeant during sniper school. Enemies that held no strategic value but could still pose interference during a mission should be eliminated. But in this situation he wasn't exactly an enemy. He was a civilian in the wrong place at the wrong time, and if this woman adhered to many of the same rules of the sniper -of the assassin- then killing Church would make him a non-target casualty. For most professionals, that was unacceptable.

"You could kill me now without much backlash on your part, but you won't, will you? A master assassin prides him or herself on eliminating only the necessary individuals… and in this current situation, I'm not one of those, am I?"

There was a lengthy pause between the two strangers, neither of which knew anything about each other on an intimate level, but both able to discern the profession of the other. After the better part of a minute, Church felt the palm recede from his back, although the tempered steel of a knife was still held against his spine.

"For someone as well-versed in the assassin's code as you are, you are woefully easy to sneak up on."

Church allowed himself a rueful smile. He had never liked being called an assassin. He preferred the term soldier… it made him feel like less of a ruthless killer when he shot people, and more of a dutiful protector or something. That was probably a delusion on his part, but he was happy with it regardless.

"I've been out of the business for a while now. I'm more than a little rusty."

Church heard some sort of noise from the woman behind him: not a laugh by any stretch, but some sort of amused breath of air. At the same time, he felt the blade that had been holding him hostage move away from his vulnerable back. He said nothing as his captor turned on her heel and walked in the opposite direction.

Church craned his neck backwards to get a good look at her, curious of the appearance of someone he had held a conversation with, eager to put a face with a voice. Even though he only saw her retreating form, Church was not surprised to lay eyes on another downright gorgeous girl.

Tan skin, clearly a natural shade as opposed to an artificial one, captivated Church first, as he realized this was the first person with such a complexion he had met in this world. Everyone else had been white, or at least close to it. The next thing to catch his attention was her hair, which was a peculiar pale shade of light blue that Church easily could have mistaken for white if he didn't pay enough attention.

Then, like any man with a healthy sex drive, Church analyzed the tastier parts of the body that were clad in a very scant gray outfit with red lining that exposed practically everything for his viewing pleasure. The white fur on the edges of the vest and boots was a nice touch too.

The exotically beautiful woman stopped for a brief moment to turn back and face him, casting an indifferent gaze with her light red eyes at Church's own orbs, which had rapidly shifted from looking at her well-toned ass to her face as he realized she was turning around.

"I assume you will not give me a reason to come back and kill you by revealing what has just transpired to your friends."

It was obviously less of a question and more of a statement. Church felt like he was being commanded, but was too busy discreetly enjoying the wonderfully perky and half-exposed breasts being displayed to him so casually to feel irritable about it. Damn, sometimes it was a good life.

"I suppose I won't."

Without even a nod, she turned from him and continued to walk away. Church felt a little put off, well aware that he had not learned anything substantial here…

"Do I at least get your name?"

The question's target stopped a second time, turning to look at Church with a raised eyebrow that signaled amusement, curiosity, and maybe a little bit of incredulity. It lasted for only a moment, before she turned away from him again, giving an answer he probably should have expected.

"No."

And with that, the mysterious beauty disappeared behind one of this region's numerous rock formations, leaving Church irked, confused, and probably a bit more aroused than a simple glance at a woman should have caused him to be.

Ironically, Tomoe and Shizuka arrived on the scene just a few minutes after Church's encounter with the mysterious assassin. Against his better judgment, Church didn't mention said encounter to them. He knew it was wrong to hide the fact that she was still around from the people who were essentially her targets, but he also didn't know if the elusive woman was watching from some hidden crevice, observing everything with those alluring red eyes of hers.

Church had no doubt in his mind that she could kill him many times over without breaking a sweat. In fact, everyone he had met so far could. He had never really seen Airi or Melona in action, but he was sure the two of them would have no trouble with someone like him as an opponent. Others like Alleyne, Echidna, and Nowa were all skilled warriors who could probably beat him up seven ways to Sunday even at their worst. Nyx could just blast him with fire, Nanael could probably paste him against a wall with her insane strength, and Tomoe and Shizuka were clearly out of his league as far as fighting was concerned.

Church grit his teeth at the thought of literally being weaker than everyone. Was he not strong enough to defeat anyone at all? Granted, he had bested a few soldiers here and there, but it was not as if they were elite commandos or anything. In fact, many of them had been greenhorns patrolling an out-of-the way town. Defeating a handful of them was nothing to boast about really.

Not for the first time, Church felt utterly useless and pathetic. He was supposed to be a soldier. An elite one at that. And here he was cowering behind the aegis of some female warrior or another whenever real danger approached.

Well, maybe cowering wasn't the right word. He tried to fight when he could. He had fought Echidna rather than back down from her challenge back in the forest. He did his best to assist Nyx when she fought against Elina. And truth be told he hadn't done awful in either of those encounters. But he certainly wouldn't have labeled himself as a skilled warrior.

On one hand he felt worthless, but on the other he felt that his weakness was justified. He came from a world where fighting was done with bullets, reticules, and trajectories. A world where you could defeat your enemy by lobbing a grenade into his foxhole, or by dropping a bomb on him from thousands of feet in the air. Here, everything was a matter of skill: skill with crazy weapons and martial arts Church had never heard of. For God's sake, Airi fought with a scythe! If you carried a scythe around where Church was from it was either Halloween or you had escaped from a mental institute.

Scythes, swords, spears, and an ass-load of other shit Church had written off as weapons only seen in a one of many fantasy video games or maybe a history book. He would seriously have to learn how to do something, something like... like learn how to use a weapon himself. Such a simple idea, yet one Church had never thought of until right now, as he led Snow by the reins, walking alongside his Eastern acquaintances because their destination was in the same direction as his for now.

How many people had he met that were masters or experts of something? How many times could he have asked for someone to teach him to fight with a weapon? For crying out loud, Alleyne had supposedly been a master at all forms of combat for hundreds of years, and he hadn't asked her to teach him anything.

Church felt like kicking himself in the head for being so slow to fathom such a simple and obvious idea. Before he could attempt such a thing, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked over to Shizuka, who had once again wrapped her chest in bandages. She had a mixed expression of friendliness and curiosity on her face.

"Something on your mind? You look a little lost there."

He shouldn't have been surprised all things considered. A ninja was supposed to be observant right? Reading people's faces was probably part of the job. "I'm all right. Just lost in my own thoughts."

He figured she would press the issue, being the slightly nosy person she was. So when Shizuka cocked an eyebrow at him, a silent gesture to urge him to continue, Church was again, not surprised.

"I was just thinking that I should learn how to fight properly sometime. I'm at a disadvantage against pretty much everyone I face… you know, including you guys the other night. I feel like I could be of more help if I knew how to face opponents on equal ground…"

Shizuka pursed her lips in thought. "Well there are other ways to be useful to your friends without necessarily fighting for them. Although just for the sake of protecting yourself from unsavory sorts, learning to use a weapon with some skill would be nifty. Why the sudden doubts though? Did something happen?"

Church was reminded of his recent encounter with the dark-skinned warrior that day, and once again wondered if he should say something about it. After all, Tomoe and Shizuka deserved to know that someone with ill intent towards them was still around. But even if he didn't directly mention her presence, he could remind Shizuka that she was still out there… and hopefully she'd get the hint.

"Well, you know… you and Tomoe are really strong: a lot stronger than me. But you were still beaten by someone else, meaning that I'd be of almost no use if she were to appear again…"

Shizuka grimaced at the mention of her recent loss, but nodded nevertheless. Whether or not she picked up on Church's hidden meaning was indiscernible. "I guess that's true… but hey, you could always learn, just like you said. Mastering a weapon isn't easy, but you can do anything with practice. I'd even offer to train you a little bit, if we weren't going separate ways so soon."

The mention of splitting up with his new friends, since they could be considered such at this point, temporarily pushed thoughts of acquiring new skills out of Church's mind. "And how soon is that exactly?"

"Roughly an hour or so, before our path splits off from yours. We're going south just like you, but towards the capital, not Bosk."

Church quirked an eyebrow at the silver-haired kunoichi. "Bosk?"

"It's the name of the village in the mountains you're heading to. I looked it up on the map earlier because not remembering its name was killing me. Anyway, your destination is a straight shot south, while the capital is more to the southeast. The road will split eventually, about an hour from where we are now."

Church felt a familiar pang of sadness at the thought of once again saying goodbye to people he had come to consider friends. Pretty much everyone he had gotten along with since arriving in this world had been separated from him at some point, and it was really starting to piss him off.

The thought of traveling with Shizuka and Tomoe to the capital crossed his mind, and it was indeed a very tempting notion… but Church had promised Rachel that he would do something for her. She was relying on him to pull through for both her and her daughter, and that was enough to keep him from suggesting that he tag along with the two women.

"It really sucks to have to just up and split like this after basically less than a full day."

That got a smile out of Shizuka, who called over to Tomoe, lost in meditation even as she walked. "Did you hear that Tomoe-sama? Church is all bummed out because he wanted to spend more time with us! Isn't that sweet?"

The raven-haired shrine maiden had to noticeably drag her focus away from her meditation as she looked over to her companions. She looked slightly dazed, like having suddenly waking up from a dream. Either way, her serene smile showed that she was quite pleased to hear Church's opinion of her and Shizuka.

"It most certainly is Shizuka-san. I had no idea he was so attached to us already."

Church rolled his eyes and did his best to avoid looking as flustered as he felt at the two women's teasing, regardless of how true it was. They were amiable, fun, and of course, beautiful people. Being attached to them within a day was a given.

"I think it's you two who are already attached to me. Who else could provide such good company on your lonely nights?"

Tomoe giggled, receiving the joke in its most innocent form. Naturally, Shizuka took a more scandalous connotation to heart, making a tantalizing pose and winking at the trio's only male. "Well I don't know Church: I haven't had enough nighttime experiences with you to really say if you would be my ideal partner for my lonely nights..."

Church and Tomoe both blushed, for different reasons of course. Either way, it was the first of many impish jokes to be shared between them all during their final hour together on this particular journey.

OK, so this is a little longer than my usual updates, but only by a bit. Anyway, I already explained why I've been absent for so long, and I hope you guys can forgive the delay. I planned on going further with this chapter but it's already reaching 5,500+ words and I still need to update everything else as well. It's good to be back, and I assure you all that the next update will not be so late.