After many hours of travelling with Kizuna and Burchard taking turns riding on Clues back, an exhausted Burchard has trouble keeping up and while panting excessively, he asks, "is it my turn yet?"

Unfortunately for him, the only response he got was the sound of light snoring. When he looks over, he isn't exactly surprised to see her cuddled up in a small ball and sleeping soundly on top of Clue. Coming to a stop, he couldn't help but smile at the surprisingly adorable sight before him while thinking, "guess she was really tuckered out."

Seeming to notice the stop, Kizuna slowly stirs awake. She slowly sits up and yawns while stretching soundly then after rubbing her eyes, she looks over at him while asking, "are we there yet?"

To her dismay, he shakes his head at her while replying, "no."

He pulls up his map while continuing, "were not even close."

Disappointed to hear this, her head slowly lowers until it was fully consumed by Clues feathers and with a muffled voice, mutters, "you got to be kidding me."

Noticing the sun slowly setting, he could only sigh but when he sees a fallen log next to the road, he walks over and takes a seat while saying, "let's just stop here for the night, at this rate, we're not getting there for a few days."

Seeing him sitting there, Clue walks over and carefully takes a seat on the ground next to him while still balancing Kizuna on its back. She slowly sits back up and while brushing a few feathers from her hair, she looks around the area while saying, "where are we anyways?"

While catching his breath, he pulls up his map again while replying, "looks like where in the middle of no where."

He points behind himself while continuing, "the only thing of interest around here is a river over that way but that's about it."

Hearing this causes Kizuna's ears to perk up and while looking in the direction he was pointing, she starts to grin eagerly while asking, "oh really?"

Before he could reply, she jumps off of clue and onto her feet then while slinging her fishing rod onto her shoulder, she starts to smile gleefully while continuing, "well since that sounds like such an important landmark, I guess I could go selflessly check it out!"

Finding her innocent act a bit amusing, Burchard couldn't help but grin while responding, "oh really? Didn't realize you were so selfless?"

While continuing to smile, she responds, "well I'm not one to brag or anything."

Again, all he could do was grin while Kizuna walks into the woods while saying, "since it's important to thoroughly check out this river, it might take me a few hours."

She waves back at him while continuing, "so see you later!"

With her disappearing into the woods, a still sitting Burchard looks over at Clue who gently rests her head on his lap. With a soft smile, he starts scratching her head while saying, "well I guess we finally get some piece and quiet."

Feeling tired from the day of walking and enjoying the head scratch, Clue simply responds with a soft, "Krah."

"Hey Burchard!!!"

In an instant, Burchard froze in place due to the fear that hearing Kizuna shout his name had caused while clues head shoots up. Seeing the look of fear Burchard sported caused Clue to look at him with concern since all he could really do at this point was sit there silently while thinking to himself, "shit…. Did she hear me?"

When he hears the bushes behind him start to rustle, the fear within him only grew, yet he was able to find the courage to slowly turn around. Just as he does, he sees Kizuna's head pop out of the brush and to his surprise, she was smiling brightly while saying, "you wouldn't believe what I found!!!"

Caught of guard by this, all he could really do was quietly look back at her. Seeing this causes her to look back at him with confusion while asking, "why are you…."

Seeming to realize something, her look of confusion changes to one of suspicion as she asks in an annoyed tone, "you made a rude comment about me, didn't you?"

With her hitting the nail right on the head, all Burchard could do was look back at her with an overly guilty smile while replying, "maybe…."

With her suspicion confirmed, she starts to glare at him with annoyance. Seeming to realize something though, her head drops while sighing disheartedly then looks up at him with annoyance and tells him, "After everything I put you threw, I don't think I have any right to be mad about anything you say about me."

Hearing this causes him to sigh in relief, but unfortunately for him, a mischievous idea comes to mind which causes him to cheekily smile back at her while asking, "so I'm allowed to insult you whenever I want then?"

As he expected, Kizuna starts to glare at him while replying coldly, "don't push your luck."

Burchard couldn't help but chuckle a bit then responds, "yeah, I figured."

Seeming to remember something, he asks, "so what did you find?"

With her annoyance with him making her forget what she was doing, she quickly brightens up once more while saying, "oh yeah!"

In an instant, she disappears back into the bushes while continuing, "you two follow me!"

A bit confused to hear this, Burchard looks over at clue who happens to be looking back at him with an equally as confused expression while asking himself, "both of us? What could she have possibly found?"

Deciding that just sitting there wouldn't get them anywhere, Burchard gets to his feet and makes his way into the brush with Clue following behind while saying, "well we aren't gonna find out by just sitting around."

After a few minutes of basically wandering through the forest, and trying to follow a fast moving Kizuna. Burchard and Clue finally make it out of the thick brush and into a small clearing which is bathed in sunlight where he finds a brightly smiling Kizuna standing at the other end. With the trip into the woods being anything but pleasant, her smile only adds to his annoyance with him asking, "so why did you make me walk all the way out here?"

Unfazed by his rude undertone, she continues to smile gleefully while drawing her fishing rod and declaring, "take a look at what I found!!!"

With one swift flick of the wrist, her fishing rod unspools and slashes at the foliage above her. In an instant, the branches fell to the ground which allows the suns rays to finally shine down on Kizuna. Finally able to see what she was trying to show him, he becomes a bit surprised at what he sees with him which causes him to say, "a carriage?"

Excited by what she had found, Kizuna looks over at him while telling him, "Yeah! I came across it while walking to the river!"

With her excited statement still ringing in his ear, Burchard continued to study the old, dilapidated looking carriage while thinking to himself, "this is a pretty remote area with no easy access, and the vegetation has grown enough to pretty much hide it. It honestly looks…."

A bit surprised by his conclusion, he looks over at Kizuna while saying, "it looks abandoned."

Not exactly surprised, she nods back at him eagerly while responding, "yeah! And do you know what that means?"

Still unsure of what she was getting at, he asks, "no?"

With her eyes practically sparkling with joy, she declares excitedly, "since no one would miss it, we can take it!!!"

The sparkle in her eye becomes practically blinding as she continues, "and that means we wouldn't have to walk anymore!!!"

A bit caught off guard by this side of her that he had never seen before, all he could really do was stare blankly back at her while responding, "uh…. Yeah I guess."

Seeming to ignore the confusion in his voice, she more or less skips over to him while declaring, "well don't just stand there!!!"

Once again, he was caught off guard as she gets behind him and puts both her hands on his back then proceeds to push him towards the carriage while continuing, "hurry up and fix this thing up!!!"

Finally able to get his senses back to him, Burchard proceeds to dig his heels into the ground in an attempt to stop himself while asking with annoyance, "hang on? Why do I have to fix it up?"

Undeterred by his attempts at stopping, she continues to smile gleefully while replying, "because!!! you seem like a handy person and I'm sure you'd wanna show off your handy work to such a cute girl like me!!!"

Annoyed by how pushy she was being, along with her weird reasoning, he was going to respond but since he wasn't paying attention to where he was going, he fails to see the rock in his path and ends up tripping over it which causes him to stumble forward and is forced to reach out and grab the carriage for support. With his annoyance turning to anger, he glares back at her while snapping, "hey! You don't need to push me!!!"

Unfazed by his outburst, she continues to smile eagerly while responding, "what? I assume you're as excited as I am to check this thing out?"

To his annoyance, she plants her fists in her sides while starting to smile smugly and tells him, "So if anything, you should be thanking me for getting you there so quickly!"

All he could do at this point was glare back at her in annoyance, though when he realizes something, he couldn't help but sigh disheartedly while thinking to himself, "dear god…. I keep forgetting that I'm stuck with her…."

He grabs his head and rubs it in annoyance while continuing, "which means I'm stuck with her personality to."

With Clue seeming to ignore the strange sight before her, she walks over and starts to peck at the carriage while Burchard slowly looks up and sees Kizuna continuing to stand there smugly. At his wits end, he couldn't help but sigh disheartedly then turns towards the carriage while continuing his thought, "for the sake of my sanity, I'm just gonna ignore her for now."

After a few minutes of inspecting the dilapidated carriage along with Clue, he couldn't help but be surprised by what he saw then looks back at Kizuna while saying, "it's actually in surprisingly good shape, probably just needs a good cleaning."

A bit surprised to hear this, but more importantly, excited at the idea of not having to walk anymore, Kizuna looks over at Burchard with a bright smile while asking, "really!?!"

He nods in response while replying, "yeah, might take an hour or two but it shouldn't be too hard, and…."

He looks over at Clue and seeing the harness still attached to her back, he continues, "and it shouldn't be too hard to hook her up to it either."

With Clue happy to hear this, she starts to smile though Burchard wasn't able to enjoy this since he becomes a bit distracted by Kizuna who at this point was bubbling with joy while practically shouting with glee, "Yay!!!!"

For some strange reason, Burchard felt relieved to hear this, however this quickly leaves him when he hears her continue, "then what are you waiting for? Get to it!"

A bit annoyed to be ordered around, he looks back at the carriage while saying, "alright, I'll take down the old awning if you wanna…."

Before he could even finish his sentence, he gets a little distracted by Kizuna who practically skips past him with her fishing rod slung over her shoulder while saying, "and while you do that, I'll go fishing!!!"

Before she could get to far away, she gets stopped dead in her tracks by Burchard who grabs her by the back of her collar while snapping, "hold it!!!"

While still sporting a bright smile and trying her best to nonchalantly pull away from him. She continues to look away while saying in a slightly nervous tone, "uh…. Was there something you needed before I leave?"

Though she couldn't see it, she could feel his eyes practically burning a hole in the back of her head while he responds, "you're not getting out of helping that easily."

While still looking away and trying her best to sound as innocent as possible, she continues to subtly try and pull away while saying, "what are you talking about? I already helped by finding this wagon?"

Unconvinced by this his grip on her collar remains unchanged while asking, "and how does simply passing by it on your way to go fishing count as helping?"

At this point, Kizuna had forgotten all about being subtle and simply tries to march away from him while replying, "because…. You wouldn't have found it without me! Plus fishing would be a lot of help!"

A bit surprised by the second part of her statement, he continues to hold onto her collar while asking, "and how does you fishing help us?"

Seeing an opportunity, she replies with glee, "well since we didn't get a chance to get supplies in castle town, we'll need to find food another way! And since I'm so good at fishing and there just so happens to be a river near by, we can stock up on fish!"

Since she was looking away, she couldn't see his expression but since he was being quiet, she assumed he was thinking this over until he finally says, "you make a good point."

Relieved to hear this, she couldn't help but smile while responding, "great…. Now can you let go of me?"

After another pause, he replies, "sure."

Again, she was relieved to hear this, but as soon as he lets go of her, she quickly remembers how far leaned forward she was from pulling against him since she immediately crashes forward with a THUD!

With her lying there motionlessly and the dust settling around her, a concerned Burchard looks down at her while asking, "uh…. You okay Kizuna?"

After a few more moments of lying there silently, she slowly lifts herself up and onto her knees, but when she slowly looks back at him, the concern he felt for her only turned to fear as she glares at him coldly while saying, "that hurt."

With the fear within him only growing, he takes a step back while responding, "well…. You did tell me to let go of you?"

For some strange reason, his response doesn't seem to ease her rage and instead causes it to grow since she jumps to her feet and while facing him, she snaps, "yeah! Let go! Not Drop! There's a difference!"

Again, he cautiously takes a step back while saying, "to be fair, the only reason you fell was because you were leaning that way?"

For an even stranger reason then before, the rage she was feeling only grew as she screams, "ARE YOU SAYING IT WAS MY FAULT!?!"

With the fear he felt only growing in intensity, he once again takes a step back but with an idea coming to mind, he quickly looks at his wrist where a watch would be while saying, "oh would you look at the time?"

He looks up and tries his best to ignore Kizuna's death glare and instead, simply smiles back at her as innocently as humanly possible while continuing, "it'll be dark soon so if you don't get going now, then you won't have any time to fish?"

With her unflinching glare starting to cut into his very soul, Burchard couldn't help but shake nervously while trying his best to keep up his innocent smile, but with every passing moment, the weight of her gaze grew heavier until finally, she takes a deep breath in, then says….

"Okay!!!"

At this point, Burchard's innocent smile leaves him and is instead replaced by a look of confusion when he sees Kizuna's personality do a complete 180 and with one of the brightest smiles he's ever seen, she tells him, "then I'll be off!!!"

Again, all he could do was watch as Kizuna spins around and starts skipping into the forest with her fishing rod slung over her shoulder while saying gleefully, "I'll see you later!!!"

For some reason, she pauses in her step then looks back at him while continuing, "and I look forward to seeing the carriage when I get back!!!"

With her disappearing into the forest, Burchard could only stare blankly at the space kizuna once occupied while thinking to himself, "did she just mess with me? Or was that just her personality?"

After thinking about it for a few moments and not coming up with any good answers, he simply sighed to himself then says out loud, "guess I'll find out eventually."

Remembering the task at hand, Burchard looks over at the dilapidated looking carriage while telling himself, "Well, at least it just needs a good cleaning and no actual repairs."

With an idea coming to mind, he looks over at Clue while asking, "wanna give me a hand?"

When he hears soft snoring in response, Burchard wasn't exactly surprised to see Clue curled up in a ball under the shade of a tree with her head resting on her back. Though the thought of having to fix up the carriage alone was annoying, he couldn't help but smile at the adorable sight before him while saying to himself, "guess you earned the break."

With his attention turning back to the carriage, a look of determination crosses his face as he rolls up his sleeves then tells himself, "Guess I'd better get to it."