I followed behind Shinji rather cautiously, a hand still resting against the sheath near my hip. The marksman seemed to know where he was going, strangely, stopping just before a building before heading off to his right.

"... you know this island," I noted.

His eyes flicked towards me, cocking a dark-colored eyebrow. "And what led that to your conclusion?"

"There was a path some distance back," I said, jerking my thumb over my shoulder. Once we had crossed the beach, there was a path heading into what seemed like the village. "You shook your head when you reached it and turned right."

Shinji blinked, pursing his lips. "... you're observant."

"So you're confirming it?"

However, he fell silent, instead turning his attention back to the path, nudging a plant out of the way of his head. I followed behind him, biting my lip as thorns scraped across my ankles, like tiny claws reaching out to pull me into the undergrowth.

The thought was enough to make me glance down, but there were no signs of 'claws', just red marks stretching across the pale skin.

"... yeah. I grew up here."

I glanced up sharply, catching glimpse of Shinji's frown as he nudged more plants away, the greenery being ropes from preventing him from progressing unless he moved them away.

"Why'd you leave?"

"... to find my sister."

I opened my mouth to ask one last question, as my curiosity had been aroused, stirring from my heart and peeking out from the shadows, but Shinji sent me a look over his shoulder, eyebrows drawn together and mouth quirked into another frown.

'To find my sister'.

In the back of my mind, dark thoughts flashed through my mind's eye, of hands extended towards each other, trying to desperately grab hold of one another, only to be ripped away in a the blink of an eye, of Ferphina's cry of her brother's name, of my name.

"Jaxson...?"

I snapped out of my daze, the image and sound slipping away as easily as water through your cupped hands, my eyes falling on Shinji instead. "Hm?"

"I asked you a question."

"Can you repeat?"

Facing me, Shinji only cocked his head and blinked, the emotion almost dead in his dark eyes, which were the night-sky with a few lighter flecks and a few darker ones. "... actually, nev-"

He cut off, head whipping to the side as his eyes traced the curve of the tree, a hand finding his pistol and aiming it.

"Come out," he commanded.

I tensed, my senses heightening as Shinji made it apparent that someone was there, and with a flicker of my wrist and arm, drew my blade, half of it still being in the sheath in case there was no need to use it. The two surfaces of metal slid against one another, but I didn't wince at the sound.

Silence.

"I'll shoot," Shinji said, gesturing with his gun in mid-air. My eyes flashed to the barrel, wondering if he had loaded it already, and if he was prepared to shoot, ready for the consequences.

The statement seemed to do it, and someone squeaked. My hands moved without command of my mind- bringing out the blade fully before a silver flash cut into the tree, the blade cutting deep into the bark.

Several strands of blue hair fluttered to the ground.

I narrowed my eyes, tugging my blade back after some trouble, examining the blade for any marks before shifting my attention up to the woman who was trembling behind the cover of the tree.

"U-Um! Please don't kill me!"

She raised her hands, dropping the rock that had resided in her hands, dirt smeared across her palms, blood running across the cut in her pinky-finger.

Shinji didn't relax, however. "Turn around."

The woman, who hadn't moved from her spot, although her eyes darted rapidly from Shinji, to the tree, to me and back, she obeyed, raising her hands even higher and slowly turning around so her back faced us.

For at least a minute, if not more, Shinji studied her back, from looking for weapons.

"All right. Clear. We need to take her back to the boat."

The woman visibly relaxed, allowing her hands to drop, but not before she brushed a strand of blue hair behind her ear, the unnaturally-colored hair falling just below her chin.

"What's your name?" I asked her, trying to push the steel out of my tone.

"Um... it's... Ashita..." she bit her lip, the action drawing blood. "Takaeko Ashita... if I could ask, what about you... ?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Shinji cast a doubtful look in my direction, but I went and said my fake name without hesitation.

"Jaxson."

"Jax...son...? she echoed. "That's a stran-" Ashita froze, her eyes, a shade of mint-green, ice creeping over the sheen of her irises.

"Wh-What are you going to do to me? You're with them, right?! The bombers, you're with them! You're going to take me to a haven that's supposedly safe, and-"

"We're Marines," Shinji stated bluntly. "We're not going to do that. I'm not supposed to say that we are Marines, but, oh, well."

His statement did nothing to make her relax, as Ashita's trembling was obvious.

"We're just going to take you back to our boat, okay?"

She bit her lip again, the blood welling up on the spot, but she shuffled towards us, and I took note of the way her right foot dragged against the ground, then the strange smears across her knee-high white socks. Not just brown, but a maroon mixed in as well.

"... you injured your leg, didn't you?"

"W-What?! Oh, of course not... it's just a small cut, not something I'd consider an injury, it's just fine..."

Quick to react to my question, Ashita spread her hands in front of her, waving them in a 'stop there' gesture. "It's fine!"

I arched an eyebrow, cocking my head then crouching so I was nearly high-level from the big blob located just below the inside of her knee.

"It looks more of a gash," Shinji observed. "If you cut it on a rusty nail, you could get tetanus."

The word seemed to scare Ashita, as she stiffened again, her choppy blue hair bobbling over her shoulders as she stopped mid-step. "Teta... nus...?"

"Muscle spasms," Shinji nodded. "Also known as lockjaw."

That seemed to do it, as she reached down, and rolled down her sock.

The injury actually ran from her knee and wrapped around a portion of her skin, the skin already red and irritated.

"How long have you had this?"

"... co-couple hours, maybe?" Ashita squirmed.

She let out a squeak as I swept her legs out from under her. "J-Jaxson-san!"

"There's no need to ask the -san on the end," I said dryly. "By the way, you're really light."

Following my statement, I adjusted her position, one arm underneath her legs, careful not to brush against her injury, and one around her shoulders.

I turned to face Shinji, who only cocked an eyebrow at the position.

"I'll take her back to the ship, and meet you up later, okay?"

He carefully nodded, pointing one of the tall building that were still standing. "Wait there when the sun sets."

"Don't blow up," I said, and started jogging towards the way we came from.