At Mado’s helpful suggestion, Leon snorted and shook his head. “I already have money so no thanks.” He shuddered at the idea of marrying that old, puffing urchin. No, he could definitely save that for… well, never. However, at that point, as he looked at Mado, he noted something definitely strange about her. The girl wasn’t ok, something was off about her, something that in turn made Leon step away from her with a weirded-out look on his face. 

He ended up regretting that entire motion, however, when he finally noticed what the girl was wearing. Underneath his blazer was the leather outfit, all strapped up and form fitting that without the jacket, Leon would wager that even in Nowhere, Mado would’ve gotten arrested for indecency. His hand twitched and he clenched his fist, trying to suppress the urge. However, he had to do it— he facepalmed. 

“Mado-san, you…” He started, unsure of how to break the news to her. “Your outfit is… weirdly flattering,” Where was all this coming from? “But completely indecent. I’m sure you don’t want Hakuren and the others seeing you like this. Where are your clothes?” Just then, he also noticed the bag she was holding and presumed her wet clothes were inside. Well, dry leather was better than wet cotton, he mused. However, something caught his eye. Clothes couldn’t have [i]that[/i] sharp edges, could they? Leon resisted the urge to snatch her bag away and send it flying over the hills and beyond – the girl had brought along some of the previous house’s occupants’ belongings. Belongings he was sure nobody really wanted to see. But then again, he thought with a growing smirk, some of the humans’ reactions would be priceless. A perfect way to study their personalities. Some baffled him beyond belief, like Leila, with whom he had no choice but to appear brooding but worst of all, void of emotion as well. That last bit was perhaps him instead, a replacement for something he didn’t know about the dark-haired girl.

However, he just shook his head at Mado and pointed at a random direction, already having extracted as much information as he could. Mrs. Syook’s contribution was more than enough to bring back to Hakuren and Leila. “Let’s go that way, we need to re-group with the others.” He set off at a gentle pace, turning his head every once in a while to check on Mado. He still didn’t know what to do about Mado’s outfit – the rest were bound to notice. “So, you planning on changing anytime soon?”

As they walked through the nearly abandoned city, the houses grew less and less as they approached the border. Leon could already make out some faint, mysterious landforms in the far distance and presumed them to be the caves – certainly a [i]very[/i] long walk from here. And Hakuren and Leila were still nowhere to be found. The houses grew more and more shabby, some nearly falling apart at their distorted wooden foundations as neon pink decay took over. It was a horrendous sight, Leon decided, and shifted his gaze back to the ground where tufts of blue grass grew between uneven rocks. Unexpectedly, he tripped, losing his balance for a second before returning a questioning glance to the ground, as if asking, ‘why did you do that?’.

Just as they were passing a house, Leon heard a faint thump. The house was in a remarkably better condition compared to its neighbours, its walls painted a dull blue color and a small white rickety fence surrounding the property. Surely no-one sane could be living there (but then again, you didn’t necessarily have to be sane in Nowhere to fit in) so that could mean only one thing: Hakuren and Leila. Leon backtracked a bit, still warily watching his step. “I think that’s Hakuren-san and Leila-san. Let’s wait here for them, I’m sure they’re nearly done knocking the house down.”