Assassin in Training

"Lily?!" Hina blanched, more than just a little confused. Before her was Lily and a man, the former holding the latter in a pose prepared to break his arm and dislocate his shoulder at the same time.

"Hi Hina-nii! This guy looked suspicious, so I went ahead and took him down for you!" Her earnest green eyes begged for praise, but somehow, this didn't really feel like the time for it.

"What the hell?!" The man, who Hina originally thought was human but actually looked more like a vampire upon closer inspection, didn't try to resist, but he did seem to be fairly outraged. "I'm looking at Hina and Emily, aren't I? I just wanted to say hello!"

"What, are we famous now...?" Emily murmured awkwardly into Hina's ear.

"I would imagine so... Lily, I appreciate the thought here, but let the man go."

"Alright!" Lily rolled off of him and sprang to her feet, and as she did, Hina noted her clothes; dark, tight pants, a long-sleeved shirt to match, and a black leather belt carrying a number of knives and what looked like grenades from her old world, but more primitive.

"Hey, Hina, Emily... I come bearing gifts," The man who would soon reveal himself to indeed be a vampire frowned, brushed himself off and reached into a pocket, setting a medium sized leather pouch on the table.

"What is it...?" Emily was the one to ask, her expression uncertain.

"It's fifteen stone vials of healing potion," explained the red eyed man. "Not just your run of the mill alchemist stuff, though; it's made partially from my blood, and I'm over six hundred years old, so it's enormously potent. Don't worry, I worked some magic on it, every vampire can; the blood won't affect you in a negative way, turn you or anything, but it's more than strong enough to heal even a wound from an angelic or demonic weapon."

"I... thank you, very much," Hina said slowly, strapping the bag to Emily's belt, since she, Hina, was dressed very effeminately. "Why are you giving this to us, though? It seems like you could make a lot of money from it."

"I do, in fact. I work as a healer for royalty, summoned heroes and other important figures... but because of the chaos that you caused in Starria while you weren't yourself, a great many slaves were able to escape," he said, his face slowly becoming drawn into a happy smile. "My wife, who went missing four years ago, and our two children... I just received a letter from them that they're in Mir, yesterday, and making their way back to me. So, I offer you these potions as thanks; may you bring more families together and live long as you do. Now, I've found you and said my piece, so I'll be off!" Absolutely prim now, the formerly enraged man turned on a dime and walked off, humming cheerfully.

"Well, I guess I really was in the wrong. To be fair though, he didn't just come to say hello and he was reaching for the bag when I tackled him!" Lily spoke with a giggle, but she seemed to mean what she said. "So, Hina-nii! I heard you were in the city, stalked you from the rooftops and followed you here to say hello!"

"I... I think I'm flattered, but Lily, why are you dressed like that?"

"Well you see, Hina, the Starrian knights nearly raped me, and this loli ass is only for Hina-nii to ravage, so I decided I needed to learn how to defend myself! Meg- the maid who was with me- my parents and I all packed up and came here, where I joined one of the combat training programs. Because of my small size, though, they recommended me for assassin work... and now look at me! Aren't I learning fast?!" For a moment, Hina sat there silently, stunned over what she'd heard in the beginning of that spiel.

"Um..."

"Oh, I was joking about the ravaging thing probably, so there's about an eighty, maybe forty or thirty, I dunno, chance you shouldn't worry."

"I see," Hina spoke, laughing nervously. Her mind whispered jokingly to her; "The harem is full and Aurelia is legal but tiny and flat... there's no room for another loli~ plus, this one almost definitely isn't legal, ignoring strange medieval laws."

"Anyway," Badger Girl spoke, snapping herself out of her reverie. "Yes, you're learning quickly if neither of us detected you the entire way here, and it's good to see you! I was really worried during the fight in the village, but since then my thoughts have been fairly occupied by other things."

"I can imagine," the brunette assassin in training snarked, her mouth curling into a smirk. "I'm sorry for what you've been through... but, if it's okay, my parents want to meet you, have you over for a dinner they're making as thanks for saving my life back then. Can you and Emily spare the time?"

"I know a spell to send a message back to the castle," Emily addressed Hina. "I could send it there, and one of the maids can tell Aurelia, Charlotte and Nao that we won't be back until late." Hina pondered this for a moment.

"Alright, Lily," she said finally, thinking something along the lines of 'what harm could it do?'. "We'll come with you, right now if you're ready."

"Yay! I didn't want to say this and pressure you, but they already started cooking a big meal, and they knew you might not come, but I think they'd still have been sad if it was just the three of us eating. I promised them I'd find you, and they have faith in me~" Lily giggled, and Hina smiled, happy to know that this teenager had good relations with her parents. That was important, she thought, remembering her own mother... and what she, the mother, had done to her, formerly him, so often before Hina was reincarnated.

"Well I'm happy to come and spend some time eating good food and hanging out, Lily~ are we ready to go, Emily?"

"We are~!" Emily nodded, finishing the last of her coffee and nudging Badger Girl to stand up, which the Summoned Girl immediately did.

"Alright, I'll be your soon-to-be assassin guide, if you'll just follow me!" Lily's declaration drew stares, but the eyes that turned their way didn't take long to settle on Hina and Emily, who hurried after Lily, exiting the café and all its cuteness.

"This way," Lily spoke excitedly, starting to jog down the street. "We'll have to head through the fairy district."

"Fairy district?" Hina followed along easily, wondering why Lily seemed slow until she realized the stat difference they must have.

"Well yeah! You guys were in the human areas, but there are so many species here, it can't all be uniform stone and mortar can it?" Lily picked up a bit of speed, but Hina and Emily had no problem keeping up, naturally. Badger Girl wasn't quite sure what Lily meant... but before long, the city around them did indeed begin to change; and drastically, to say the least. In five minutes, gone were the stone buildings, which had moments ago simply been covered in ivy. The houses here were not actually houses, but rather trees that grew larger and larger as they went, to the point that they might as well have been wooden castle spires. Here and there flitted tiny figures, darted animals... Hina thought she saw a harpy flapping overhead at one point, as well.

"Can you two climb?" Lily came to an abrupt stop at the base of a tree big enough to be the leg of God himself. Here, the light was relatively dim and the ground was dotted with points of white, yellow and green. The air was cool, and smelled of spongy, fresh moss... so peaceful, so relaxing, Hina might get lost in it under other circumstances. "Ah, it doesn't matter, there's a staircase around back. Come on, you're in for a surprise!" The girl then bolted round the trunk. Hina followed, confused, using her tail for some balance on the soft ground... and indeed, there was a staircase at the back, leading straight into... was it really the tree?

As Hina entered the walls of wood, she found herself in what looked much more like an endless staircase leading up. Every ten steps, there was a landing with a door, and then the stairway continued on, never ending, certainly reaching far past the confines of the tree itself. After about five minutes, Lily stopped at a door very high up and let them all in. After a quick exchange of glances, Emily and Hina entered together.