“Stupid Jak! Dumb Myra! Ich polier eure Fresse wenn ihr zurück kommt!” Jenny cursed with teary eyes and an angry glare, worriedly fretting at the edge of the roof. Her gaze was drawn towards the ruinous remnants of the orphanage, eyes squinted as she tried to get a better look. She could barely see what had happened to everyone but it had to be bad! And she wanted to help too, Abyss damnit!

Narrowing her eyes, Jenny glanced past the roof edge at the creaking pipes and ruined remnants of the orphanage that leant against the walls of the neighbouring buildings. She breathed in deeply and huffed determined. Gradually she walked backwards, tensing her legs for a running star and then rushed forwards. And with a powerful leap she hopped on high.

Only for a hand to snatch her out of the air by the collar and pull her back just as she was about to drop past the roof’s edge.

“No jumping. That’s dangerous.” With a quiet voice a young woman scolded her as she easily held her up.

“H-hey! Let me down! I know what I’m doing! Blöde Kuh!” Jenny flailed within her hold.

“Kay.” The woman shrugged and pulled her away from the edge before unceremoniously plopping her back down on the roof. A pair of short but impressively jagged horns adorned the dragon mare’s head, shimmering a deep purple to her violet hair. She was also dressed in subdued dark clothes that hugged her body, both hiding her well from a distance while still emphasising her curves unintentionally up close.

“Ow…” Jenny made more out of surprise than any actual pain, pouting exaggeratedly as she rubbed her bottom. She glared up at the dragon mare. “Who even are you…?”

“Don’t need to know.” The woman shrugged again and stepped towards the edge herself before laying down so only her head poked over the side, eyes owlishly glancing down at the ruins. They flitted quickly over the situation, taking stock of the chaos as Jak and Myra ambushed the Demon Witch. Crude but good. A kitten grin flitted over her lips for a moment before quickly returning back to her more subdued expression.

Without even looking away from the scene her tail snatched Jenny by her own before she could try to sneak away and try to climb down somewhere else. Pulling her back, the strange woman kept the young girl right by her side.

“Muh!” Jenny grumbled, futilely struggling against the ironclad grip before huffing cutely and crossing her arms annoyed as she plopped back down on her butt. She would have maybe acted more rashly if the dragon girl wasn’t so… so insufferably passive!

“Hey, you can at least tell me your name…” Jenny groused, continuing to glare at her.

“…Ruth.” Came the answer a moment later much to the small mouse fennec’s surprise. But the dragon mare found no real reason to keep that from her. Names weren’t really as important as who you truly were. She had gone through a few of them already.

Ignoring Jenny’s awkwardly mumbled introduction, Ruth continued to look towards the ruins and slowly nodded to herself as things started to calm down. It didn’t seem like her intervention had been needed after all. Hm, now she wasn’t sure if she would have preferred for things to go south or to have just been left alone. She absentmindedly rubbed her chin while Jenny gave her a deadpan stare as the dragon mare completely ignored her even after she had started poking her sides incessantly.

What was a woman from Inari no Kuni even doing around here, Jenny wondered, completely forgetting about the massive festival she had wanted to visit the next day.

———

It didn’t take too long for Jak, Myra and Graam to climb out of the basement. The stairs, while ruined in part, were still intact enough. Though there was a lot of rubble and cracked gaps they had to climb over, in the last part they had to pull up the side as the stairs had fully collapsed along with the remaining ceiling. Wet stone dust clung to their bodies, clinging to them like wet cement before being washed away as the rain intensified and they finally entered what remained of the lunch hall.

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Graam trailed behind the two teenagers, not really knowing who to actually look out for. A sad look shimmered within his eyes as he gazed over the destruction and tragedy that had struck the orphanage.

With the building no longer crumbling around them, Hailey and some of the older orphans had managed to bring some semblance of organisation into this chaos as they quickly moved around to treat the wounded, cover up the death as best they could from the children while consoling those very same scars and crying kids. Lady Tiffany was also back up, the old woman moved with steeled resolve and surprising agility on her makeshift crutch.

The trio passed all of this in sombre silence.

“There…!” Jak called out, it hadn’t taken him long to find where Vee, Rehn and Mina had settled down.

The appearance of the cat girl had Jak stumped as he blinked owlishly at her. How was… Why was Rehn even here? The question whirled through his head but he bit it down for the moment as he saw how exhausted they looked and the blood soaked bandage dripping on Rehn’s leg.

Vee leant against rock besides Rehn, softly holding onto Mina from behind while gently stroking through her dishevelled hair. Her eyes stared out into the chaos. Mulish, the chameleon weasel pushed through the tears and depression as she brooded with a hard look on her face instead. The girl had already exchanged a quick few words with Hailey, the caretaker having been a bit suspicious of this unknown stranger at first, who was now glad that Mina had someone to cling to. Even as Hailey had tried to keep a calm facade, her eyes still reflected the despair she had felt when the death of another kid was laid out before here.

A part of Vee couldn’t help but feel envious of Rehn, the cat girl dozing through the harrowing atmosphere from her exhaustion. She couldn’t have known that the cat girl saw even more than she did, her Third Eyes zooming around the orphanage as it provided her a full overview of the tragedy that had settled over the newborn ruins.

“Vee…!” The call coming first from Jak, and was then followed by Myra, startled Vee out of her brooding thoughts. A relieved smile rushed to her lips as she tiredly waved towards the two. And then blinked startled at the massive shark Gaian who followed right after them.

“Jak! Myra!” Vee called back but didn’t really know what to say next. She felt vulnerable. And she had hated that fact. The obvious question then came to her tongue.

“Who’s that big guy?” She raised an eyebrow as she pointedly stared at Graam. Said big guy chuckled awkwardly under her gaze, scratching his cheek.

“Oh, that’s Graam…!” Myra was the first to answer as the two rejoined groups got everyone caught up with the other’s happenings.

Vee, however, kept quiet on Rehn’s sudden appearance. Arc. It had to be her Arc. And if anyone found out that she had unlocked her Arc… even being the daughter of the city’s Chief Deputy Commander wouldn’t save her from banishment.

Unbeknownst to her, Graam had a pretty good idea of what had happened as he gave Rehn a considering glance for just a short moment.

For the most part the big shark kept to the background as the teens talked, feeling a bit awkward. Like he was intruding. It had been fine when it had been just Jak and Myra, both he knew at least in some fashion, but he doubted that having read a file on both Rehn and Vee counted for this. Actually, that just made him feel even more awkward. No, he was fine with being quite and out of the way right now.

“…a-and… Geen, he’s… dead…” Vee swallowed hard, warm tears running down her cheeks as the words felt like sand slipping through her fingers.

A shock silence washed over the group and Mina flinched minutely in Vee’s arms as the words echoed unwanted in her ears. Her eyes met with Graam’s. It was strange moment as his sympathetic, empathetic gaze pierced through the numbness that had settled over her. And all the emotions that had been held on so tight just below the surface now bubbled upwards, breaking through with their full weight.

The young parrot girl startled the group as she threw herself sobbing and crying at Graam, clinging to his leg as he was a bit too large for her to bury her face into his beer belly.

“There, there…” Graam muttered as he helped her up, hugging her against him as she continued to cry. Sadness, personal guilt, mixing with the remaining awkwardness as he rubbed her back. But he hadn’t even hesitated to step forwards as their eyes had met.

“I wish I could have done more…” He whispered near inaudible. “Sorry I wasn’t able to save more…”

Myra had tears in her eyes as she clasped her hands over her mouth, barely able to believe that Geen was dead. They had been talking less than an hour ago. And now he was gone. What were they supposed to tell Jenny?

Similar thoughts flitted through Jak’s head, though he didn’t cry. Instead of feeling sad or depressed, he felt his anger at Haggard and that bitch in silver pink reignite, grow. Was that the Mistress, Haggard had been talking about? If so, then she was the source of all of this even more so than Haggard himself. An angry growl rumbled quietly from his throat as his eyes narrowed .

“Well, I think we’re done here. Ey?” Graam sighed as he gently sat Mina back down. The young girl still tried to cling to him but didn’t resist much as Vee took her in again. “We found those three here… let’s get going then.”

His eyes flitted up towards the rooftops, noting a familiar face waving blandly back. While holding up a flailing fennec mouse by the scruff of her neck.

The comedy of that sight just felt so at odds with the general mood permeating the ruins.