Kochiya Sanae
Hillside Hamlet
After the merchant caravan was informed of the situation and began turning around
yet again, Sanae flew back up into the air to get a look at the area once more. Putting aside the copious amount of damage they had done to the landscape, though, there didn't actually seem to be any trace of those strange enemies they had fought earlier. The young woman
had noticed them disappearing into nothingness earlier, but seeing the landscape battered but with no blood to be seen...
Well, it wasn't as if that was all to unfamiliar—danmaku duels usually resulted in a fair bit of collateral damage, after all—but with what they had seen from this world already?
That was strange.
With most of her companions already moving to question the town's defenders, Sanae chose to instead follow in Anne's footsteps and check up on the hamlet and it's residents. By this point, the villagers—though still somewhat on guard—had finally begun to check out the situation with their own eyes and, with any luck, go back to their usual lives.
Floating gently to the ground, Sanae slowly made herself known to the people present and, in much the same way she had informed the group of people she had been traveling with, let them know that everything was indeed safe now. Those who were more curious left to go check the truth of her words, while others chose to stay behind.
At a glance, though, Sanae found no indication that anyone here was any bit out of the ordinary—at least, not among those she had seen exiting the building. The question of
why those things seemed to be converging here still stuck out in the back of her head, and the young woman felt like this was a good a place as any to start investigating.
"Um... Do you mind if I take a look inside?" she asked no one in particular as she pointed towards the doorway. "I just want to make sure that everyone's okay; we have a healer with us, so if anyone's injured, we can treat them."
A few cautious glances were thrown her way, of course, but in the end the remaining defenders of the town reneged and let her in.
The extent to which this hamlet was sparsely populated only really dawned upon her as she took a look around inside the room she found herself in now, though. At best, this was probably some sort of communal hall, given how the place looked very much like a somewhat well-decorated home, and given how few people were left inside, it didn't
seem like there was any reason to converge here of all places.
"Maybe it's just because there were people here, then...?" she muttered to herself as she glanced around, only for her gaze to fall upon what seemed to be a lone child with pale golden hair, curled up in the corner in a fetal position out of the way of everyone else.
There was a brief pause as Sanae stared at them, then at the other villagers present, then once more at the child before walking over to see if she was okay. As she approached, though, the shrine maiden took note of how
delicate they seemed to be; with unblemished, pale skin and none of the usual signs of someone who had seen even a day's work under the sun, Sanae felt that she might as well have been looking at a porcelain doll.
"...Hello?" she asked, kneeling down nearby to try and reach eye level with them, "Are you okay? Does it hurt anywhere?"
"Remilia, Rayne, Fran, and Anne? Such wonderful names!" Gwen replied with a smile on her face as she sheathed her scissors on her back before returning the Knight's handshake in kind. "You're quite right, Miss Anne; neither of us are from here. In fact, we were wandering this land for a few days' time before coming across this charming little town."
After she had replied, though, Maokai grunted briefly, shifting his gnarled body and causing the wood to creak and groan in response.
"...Those things were not unlike the Mist. A curse befouling the land itself... I suppose that even in this realm, mortals would seek to defile nature," he added, glancing briefly at Fran before turning towards where all of the creatures had come from.
"Oh? I suppose that those things
were familiar, in a sense, but I certainly didn't feel any of the Black Mist on them. Probably for the best, though," the blue-haired girl quipped before glancing back towards the rest of the group. "Anyways, if you're looking for any injured, I had all the townsfolk gather in their town hall... Or some equivalent therein; it looked to be the largest building here, so it seemed like a reasonable enough place to hide away while we did what we could here."
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