[center][h2]Kochiya Sanae[/h2][h3]??? — Ruined Church[/h3][/center]

As the conversation between the others continued on, Sanae chose to listen in silence—for now, at least. The young boy's grim expression had caught her attention, of course, but the reason behind it seemed to slip past her unnoticed.

Or, well, it [i]had[/i] until the fact that the boy and his sister had to have been fleeing [i]from[/i] somewhere was brought up; that made the call to push forward and give chase make more sense. It wasn't like this was the first time she had to go find answers herself—a small solace, given how there were a few notably [i]deceased[/i] human corpses in front of the church and likely more to come soon thereafter. Youkai extermination was one thing (and she really only just battered them into submission anyways); being lethal in any capacity was another entirely.

But the matter of having to fight to kill in this world was just one of many problems, and given that there were a few others who were still on the fence about everything going on, maybe that issue was just something she'd have to try and come to terms with eventually. This [i]felt[/i] like a war zone already, and she had read and seen enough about what war truly cost that it didn't sit well with her at all.

"...Honestly, I think everyone here would be hard-pressed to find anyone with any answers to any questions at this point—not without contacting that goddess that apparently brought us here, like Rayne suggested. I was the first to arrive, and everyone else seemed to pop in here afterwards. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine as to how we got here," she said, shaking her head. "But I think that the others are right about trying to save the village, at least; I don't know how long we might be stuck here, but if it's going to be for a while, I'd rather have a proper roof over my head and food to eat as I figure things out."

After she had spoken her piece, though, the young man finally seemed to gather himself—at least for a moment—before responding to their request.

"Erm... That goddess—Lavielle, she said her name was—spoke with Millie's voice. I think she was possessing her or something, but after she spoke some sort of spell, all those beams of light appeared, and then you all arrived here. But after that, Millie passed out, so..." he spoke, faltering a few times as he seemed to subconsciously glance at the deceased outside every so often.

"Mmm... A deity with that much faith has to be powerful, but if you only knew her name from that much..." Sanae mused to herself before being told to hold any questions until after the bigger problem at hand was resolved.

Probably the smarter course of action, if anything.

"I... Am I the only one that can fly?" she asked, rising into the air as the group seemed to prepare to head into the forest. "If anyone else can, it'd probably be a good idea to come with me through the skies; that should be faster than walking if we're pressed for time. If not, I should be able to scout..."

Sanae's voice trailed off as the very blatant plume of black smoke rising from the distance caught her attention. Not able to see clearly from just over the treetops, though, the green-haired girl quickly shot further up into the sky to get a better view of the terrain below.

Needless to say, a town on fire past the forest turned the situation from "bad" to "worse" in an instant.

Rocketing back down to the others who were preparing to move, Sanae (whose eyes were wide in panic) pointed with her gohei towards the direction from which she had [i]seen[/i] the smoke and shook her head.

"I don't know if it's the right town—probably is, might not be—but there's a [i]giant[/i] cloud of smoke rising into the sky from the one in that direction. I'm going to go on ahead!" she exclaimed before speeding off, leaving the others behind to try and give chase at their own pace.
[hr]
[center][h3]??? — Burning Town[/h3][/center]
Sanae's flight towards the town had been met with no resistance at all—the soldiers who were retreating seemed to be more focused on returning to their main force than on stalling their chase, but the wind priestess them next to no mind as she approached the growing pillar of black smoke. As she drew nearer, the screams and cries of those within the town's walls quickly met her ears.

If the corpses in front of the church were sickening, then what she would likely see within would be even worse.

But given that she seemed to be the first on the scene to be able to help, the only thing she could really think of [i]trying[/i] to do now—especially with a few of the enemy soldiers taking swift notice of her presence—was to try and pull their attention away.

"This might cause a lot more problems in the end, but it has to be better than nothing...!" Sanae told herself as she pulled a spell card out and holding it out in front of her. 

"Sea Opening — 「Moses' Miracle」!"

The image on the card flashed briefly before a massive sigil appeared behind the young girl, marking her position in the skies for everyone, ally or enemy, to see. In that moment, though, what seemed to be a torrent of bullet-shaped water seemed to come pouring out from behind her through the skies. Though the wave-shaped lane in which she remained remained bereft of any water, Sanae herself had begun to fire streams of knife-shaped bullets towards whatever soldiers seemed to be preparing to shoot at her or were otherwise occupied with trying to kill whatever civilians they could approach.

It was at this point, though, that an arrow that seemed [i]far[/i] more powerful and more dangerous than what had been fired at the church earlier whizzed narrowly past her head. The young woman had managed to dodge, if only out of sheer instinct, but it was quite clear that there were far more dangerous enemies here.

Though she would have preferred trying to find the archer firing at her (especially after another arrow grazed past her arm), the young woman's goal right now was to pull as much attention to herself as possible while stalling for the others to arrive. Given what she had seen what half of them were able to accomplish, gory as the results were, there was no doubt that they would be able to at least save [i]some[/i] of those who could still be saved.

[@VitaVitaAR][@DracoLunaris][@EchoWolff][@Lugubrious][@Drifting Pollen][@Raineh Daze]