Belial wordlessly began taking a few steps before she came across a thought.

“Actually…it will be quicker if I fly you there.”

Without waiting to hear if Marie had any concerns about heights, she
quickly turn to scoop up the blob in her arms, her wings spreading wide
as she took off to get past the treetops. She quickly took sight of the
town, flying as fast as she could mostly so that she could stop carrying
Marie around.

As soon as found Shinko’s home, she landed right on the doorstep, putting Marie down to knock.

Within a few moments, the door opened to reveal Falcon, who
immediately tensed the dark tendrils of his ‘hair’ and spread the
fringes of his sleeve in a defense stance.

“Hmph… stop that nonsense. I seek the little girl, Shinko,” Belial scoffed.

The dark eye holes of Falcon’s mask, as well as the white eyes of his
demonic form, narrowed at her. “She is sleeping. It is late.”

“Unlikely, for a brat like her. One of her friends got lost in the
Outskirts. Something about getting lost on the way to some other place
I’ve never heard of,” Belial spoke irritably. “If you know what’s good
for you, you’ll step aside and let us see her. You know I’m not above
taking you down.”

Before Falcon could react, he heard the sound of a door from the
hallway creaking open. He glanced back with one of his white eyes to see
that Shinko had peeked to look outside.

“…um…. I heard my name?” Shinko asked. From where she stood, she could only see Falcon and Belial at the front door.

“..Wait whAUGH!”

Marie suddenly found herself aloft, hyperventilating and flailing as she was carried at high velocity…and more importantly, quite a ways away from the ground.

Her hat was shocked back into a green bow by the time they landed, and her blobby form was pale as she shivered from both the cold and the experience.

She looked up, starting to really regret this. Oh, if she hadn’t tripped (how on earth can a blob trip anyway?), she wouldn’t have been in this mess, she wouldn’t have caused this much arguing…What an assistant she was turning out to be…

Her self-pitying train of thought was interrupted as she heard Shinko’s voice from inside the house. Well, at the very least, she could speak up.

“Um, s-sorry about this, but, um… she was helping me out…”

She moved her lower half in a manner similar to how someone would shuffle their feet, as she rubbed her hands in the cold. She was having trouble making eye contact.

“…I k-kinda got lost in the woods,” she partially admitted to her own failure. “She agreed to take me to Sh-Shinko, and, w-well….”