With a nod and a bow, Misaki watched as Haruno left, leaving both her and Nobunaga behind on the beach. To think that a race of people in the same make as classic oni, not too unlike those seen in old folktales, would be in such a state in this world...

It was intriguing to the foxgirl, of course; there were a lot of questions to ask and a lot more to dig into, but if she wanted to pursue this in its entirety, then actually [i]getting[/i] to Chagawa was her top priority.

That, of course, led her back to the schematics she had briefly drawn out in the sand. The oni hadn't exactly reacted to them—whether that was a good thing or not was up for debate—which meant that she only needed to execute what it was that she had in mind. Of course, it seemed like getting her to help was out of the question by now...

Which, in other words, left few others she could attempt to ask for help. Most of the other residents of the town were unlikely to see the benefits inherent in making paper—not as they were now, at least; the caravan was even less of an option, really, given how much they would stand to gain after the fact.

In short, she could only ask Lazirha and the others living with her at the moment for help, and with them being out of the town at the moment, the most she could really do was detail her plans for the near future before wiping them all away as the sun began to set.

Being engrossed in her work as she was, the foxgirl found herself only now growing hungry, which in turn only led her to head back to her benefactor's home to see if the other group had returned.

And when they hadn't? That was cause for concern, but given that she had no knowledge of the lay of the land nor any actual combat capabilities, the only thing she could do was wait.

When the group (or, rather, pair) had finally returned , Misaki found herself listening to a rather hard-to-follow synopsis of the day's events. To be frank, the situation was one that she could only barely grasp the basics of. What was clear, though, was that some mess involving the god they were attempting to usurp on their end had taken place, which meant that they were at least on the same page.

Well, that and the fact that Lazirha was important regardless of that fact, which, given Enli's words, was not too much of a surprise anyhow.

Of course, Misaki did not fail to give them the far-less-eventful synopsis of the events on their end, either; it only seemed right, after all. The matter about the paper could be discussed tomorrow, when the other two were less worked up about the day's happenings.

[hr]
After waking up after a night's rest, Misaki found that Narkissa was already up and about, with Lazirha nowhere to be seen. Though the latter's absence was a bit troubling, given how the same thing had occurred the day before, the foxgirl decided that it would probably be best to not worry about her for the moment. Instead, though...

"Ah... Excuse me," she began, calling out towards the white-haired girl before pausing and taking a deep breath. "...I'd like to apologize for being so curt with you the past few days. It's been... A bit difficult to adjust, admittedly, and being asked if I was from Earth so abruptly in front of so many people was a bit troublesome for me. There was another yesterday, when we went to see the Kyrinth, who was a lot more brazen about his origins and attempted to spread ours, and given how I have no idea about how that would affect how the people here would perceive us..."

The foxgirl found herself nervously scratching the back of her head as she rambled before getting up and giving a proper bow of apology instead.

"...I hope you might be able to forgive me. I am not particularly skilled at dodging questions, and so if I have insulted you in doing so, I apologize."

There was a pause as Misaki let the moment hang in the air before taking a step back; regardless of if a response came, though, after waiting a few moments, the foxgirl would move on to continue speaking once more.

"Shameless as this may sound, and despite the situation, I would like to ask if you could assist me in something today. I wish to create screens and frames for papermaking, but I'm not certain if I can do so alone. Of course, given what happened, I would understand if you were to decline in favor of searching for the one who went missing, but..."

A few minutes after she had made her request, Lazirha's return caused Misaki to focus her attention towards her words instead. There was undoubtedly a problem at hand now, though; that much was certain. But coupled with Enli's meeting with the Kyrinth today, this only seemed to bode ill for everyone involved.

"...I can... Sort of understand what you're saying, but I don't think we have enough information to try and find it without putting everyone at risk. You mentioned that there were people who were trying to kill you, right? I don't think that you can afford to throw yourselves into danger again—not until we know a bit more, at least," she finally said, glancing at Narkissa and Lazirha before shaking her head. "But if we have the Kyrinth's cooperation, it might be possible to ask him after Enli's meeting... Which would mean that would have to proceed without incident. I don't think I can be of much use, though; I'm not much of a fighter to begin with, so if anything was to happen, I'd likely end up a burden."

Making paper seemed like a far less productive way to spend her time, given the situation, but at this point the only thing she could think of doing that might have a chance of helping with regard to the more violent problems was experimenting with the plants she had gathered the day before, and even that line of experimentation wasn't guaranteed to bear fruit at the moment.

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