Chapter 247 - Vol. 4 - 46

After that, Ash's consciousness was returned to the church, and yet, she still felt like her mind was in a different place. She had spent several days now with Sinneah, and yet, she hadn't noticed that the woman had Gurron's eyes in her possession. 

Well, shit, Ash thought.  I guess I should just ask her for one of those. I get an eye from her and then I can focus on the Mist Realm. 

Ash was filled with determination. 

Now that she had a good sequence of events to follow, she left the church, noticing that the day had turned to night, and began the trip back to Amber. On the way, she wondered how she'd go about asking Sinneah for one of those. It helped that she didn't need both, just one, but she didn't quite understand why the woman had them to begin with. Still, because it was so convenient, Ash had all but eliminated the thought of looking for any other dragons already. 

Of course, she did still have the dragon Lumina had told her about as an option, if things went poorly with Sinneah, for whatever reason. However, she had some hope that Sinneah would listen. The air progressively got colder as she walked, and eventually, Ash was approaching the city, with the twin moons covering the dark sands in dim blue light. 

Holy shit, how long was I gone for? Can't be too late, can it? Ash wondered, looking up briefly before she walked into the city. Behind her, she felt a couple of guard's eyes remain on her as she entered. On the street, she could see some confetti, some broken bottles, some bits of food everywhere that hinted at the festivities that had taken place earlier. 

As lonely as these streets were, Ash still felt hopeful for the future. She had a clear goal, deadline, and a way to reach it. As long as she put in the work that was necessary, she had a chance. 

She arrived at the Manor a little while later, and the two knights guarding the gates stepped aside to grant her entry. She walked in and found no one in the gardens at the front. As she walked in, she quickly saw a couple of servants grimace as they saw the dirt on her boots fall out onto the recently cleaned floors. Ignoring them, she walked back to her room so she could change out of these clothes, and, here, she saw Keiko laying on the bed next to Kaori. She was still awake, just looking up at the ceiling with her hands on her stomach. When Ash walked in, she turned toward her. 

"Ash," Keiko said, and a smile gradually appeared on her face, though she seemed tired. "Hi." 

"Hey," Ash said, quickly taking her boots off. Stripping herself, one piece of clothing at a time, she eventually ended up almost naked with no bra and only some underwear covering her up. After being in the heat for so long, however, this felt incredibly refreshing. 

She let out a satisfied sigh as the chilly air kissed her skin, and Keiko scooted a little to the left to give her space. Ash laid down next to her and closed her eyes. 

"How did your trip go?" Keiko asked. 

"Decent enough," Ash muttered. "Did anything happen while I was gone?" 

"No... I got sick for a little while, but, I got over it soon enough," Keiko told her. At that, Ash turned toward her and nearly felt entranced by the silver eyes looking back at her, shining in the darkness. 

"Sorry to hear that," Ash said softly but Keiko just chuckled. 

"It's fine," Keiko replied, and indeed, her voice sounded a little worn-out. "Though... Yes, I-I don't think we should... You know. There is a fairly high chance I would end up vomiting all over you." 

"Meh, I've had sex while covered in swamp muck and blood. I think I'm fine with a little bit of puke." 

"Gross." 

The two of them grinned at each other for a little bit then. A comfortable silence fell between them, as Ash just admired the raven-haired girl's beauty. She saw this same sight every night and still hadn't gotten used to it. 

"... I want to do something," Keiko said, as she leaned in and let her head rest on Ash's chest.

"Hm? Didn't you just say-" 

"No, I mean," Keiko quickly interrupted her, "I don't know, I want to go somewhere with you. It feels like we rarely do anything nowadays, with everything going on. Remember, when Kaori took us to those taverns at Jade? After we'd come back from Sapphire?" 

Talking about the girl like she wasn't literally on the same bed as them right now always made Ash feel strange, though, she supposed that, in truth, that was the case. 

"Yeah?" 

"I would like to do such a thing again. Maybe I'm just getting a little silly these days but..." She reached up and placed her hand on Ash's cheek. It was like her warmth spread all throughout Ash's body as she touched her. "I would like to, well, hang out, if that makes sense." 

"I understand, at least, I think I do, but..." Ash sighed, as she wrapped an arm around her. "There's just a lot going on right now." 

"Y-Yes," Keiko nodded against her chest. Their legs intertwined as she kept going. "I mean, after some of the work is done, maybe we could do something? Or go somewhere?" 

"Yeah," hearing that, Ash nodded. "I don't see why not." 

The conversation did bring something to Ash's mind that she hadn't thought too hard about yet. That was: 

What the hell am I going to do after all of this?  She asked herself. 

The way she saw it, the most likely thing to happen was that one day, she would take on an enemy that was simply too powerful for her and that she'd end up with a demon's claws tearing through her body. If that didn't happen, however, what exactly was going to become of her life? 

She didn't have any sort of a real idea of what she would do, other than that, whatever it was, she hoped Kaori and Keiko would be by her side. 

After a few minutes, Ash muttered: 

"Hm... I guess I'd like to eat at another of those super nice restaurants back at Jade. But, after that, I don't want to walk through any city's streets for a long, long time." 

She shook her head. 

"Sorry, I'm just thinking out..." 

However, when she looked down, she saw that Keiko had fallen asleep on top of her. Ash held back a laugh, grinning a little as she closed her own eyes. 

Yeah, alright. Goodnight. 

---

When the morning arrived, all Ash had on her mind was the situation with Sinneah. As she trained outside with her, continuing to work on Tomoe's Divine Arts while the others sat nearby, she wondered,  how do I bring this up? Do I just ask, "hey, can you give me one of those eyes?" Maybe after that, I could be like, "oh, sorry, I lost it. My bad." 

Although the thought made her smirk, she felt that maybe this was the wrong way of going about it. Honesty? Deceit? Persuasion? She wasn't good at dealing with people in general, how the hell was she supposed to ask a dragon-woman for one of her dead dad's eyes? 

Eh,  she thought as she dodged one of Sinneah's kicks.  Maybe I'm just overthinking it. 

As she worked, two people walked out to the garden. A couple of servants approached Ash, and the half-demon stopped. 

What? 

"E-Excuse me, Savior," one of the servants gave a deep bow to her as Ash raised a brow. She hadn't been addressed directly like this by many people here. 

"Yeah?" Ash asked. 

"A-Another Savior is here to see you." 

As she heard that, she blinked. 

"Seriously?" 

Satsuhiro heard this as well, and stood up, walking over to where she was. 

"Hm... Figured they all just called it a career and went back home," Satsuhiro muttered.

"Same... So, what do we do?" Ash asked. 

"Well, if they're here to help, there's no reason not to take them up on that offer. May as well go see them." 

"Okay," Ash nodded. "Sin. Let's stop here for a sec." 

"Sure." 

With that, the two of them walked back into the Manor and followed the servants to the front where soon, they came out of the other side of the building. Ash wondered who it could be, but as soon as her eyes found the Savior in question, she stopped. 

Ahead, there was a woman with blood-red hair speaking to a guard. She had eyes of the same color, and brown skin, with a tired expression on her face that changed to one of surprise as her eyes met Ash's own. 

Ash walked forward, heading for the gate and exiting the Manor. She and the other woman looked at each other for a bit before Ash spoke. 

"Kasumi?"