Fenix didn't much care what the villagers thought of him; he was already wanted as a criminal, and he wasn't likely to return for the foreseeable future, so it hardly mattered whether he was wanted for arson or arson and assault.

But he didn't press the issue. If she wanted to take the blame for that, that was up to her--he just hoped no one would suspect her of helping him for it.

Once they were outside, Fenix movements...softened. Unfortunately, it was impossible to be too stealthy in the light blue hospital gown and slacks; had he been in black clothing as he preferred, he could have slipped into the shadows made by the dawn if someone approached them. As it was, he could only hope that somewhere in the bag he was carrying was a change of clothing.

He did, however, hardly make a sound as he followed Mayako closely; he likely wouldn't speak until she spoke to him again.

Getting out of the house was simple. They were able to leave on the side of the clinic, and without any of the other men looking for Fenix around, they were able to take a straight path towards the road to Galaens. Regrettably, there wasn't anyone to rent or buy a horse from left in Hillcrest, but Galaens wasn't that far away, and the road there had sense become relatively peaceful, now that Theleaus's bandits were gone from the picture entirely.

But as they neared the path, where the treeline finally met the main road out of Hillcrest, Mayako and Fenix would behold a familiar figure . . .

Emma Vaerbond.

She was standing just at the treeline, right off the main road. She stood with her profile to them and arms folded over her chest. The girl seemed to be wearing the same white coat from last night, the one sewn for her by a woman they once knew, and a pair of slacks beneath this--but nothing more; it seemed she wasn't wearing a shirt beneath her coat, but as it wasn't too terribly revealing (just somewhat low cut), she didn't seem to mind. A small black bag rested by her feet, out of which protruded a wooden sword-- one familiar to Fenix now on two accounts.

"Took you long enough," the girl muttered, but loud enough for them to hear.

Mayako slowed down as soon as she saw her. For a moment, she completely forgot about the necessity in getting Fenix out of the village as quickly as possible. After all, the last she remembered, Emma was in the room with her before she got out to try and get Fenix out of there. She was under covers and everything--sleeping soundly. Mayako distinctly remembered making sure she sneaked out without Emma realizing it.

Maybe she was woken up by the men? But . . . why would she be outside?

"E-Emma . . .?" Mayako called out in surprise and concern, "Wh-what are you--"

"Waiting for you two," Emma, with a deadpan stare, replied earnestly.

Fenix wasn't as surprised to see Emma as Mayako was. The fact that she hadn't come out at all during the commotion suggested she was already gone by that point, or had perhaps slipped out during it.

"Next time we'll just walk right by the people who want to imprison me," Fenix deadpanned.

He glanced at the bag, and a brief flash of uneasiness appeared upon seeing the sword before his poker face was back up. He could more or less guess why she was here; he'd wondered whether or not she'd leave after talking with the doctors, but he'd certainly gotten the impression she was ready to hit the road before that.

Of course, it was better now that she wasn't likely to burn down whatever was in her path.

"So...you're coming with me," he stated. Which was of course the only reason why she would have waited for him; otherwise she no doubt would have been gone already.

He wasn't terribly sure he was fond of the idea.

"Or Mayako here could've been quicker about it," Emma replied.

"H-hey, I-- I tried really hard!" Mayako pouted, "A-and I got him out just fine, too, th-thank you very much!"

Emma looked at Mayako with an almost haughtily disgusted stare. It wasn't quite such an overbearing look as it was the kind of pursed lip stare one devoted to someone who just failed to see a conclusion staring them right in the face. Emma shut her eyes and sighed.

"Steal Rebbecca's keys-- unlock Fenix's room, unlock the clinic; steal the Smithy's keys, hang them right outside the door . . ." Emma declared in an almost patronizing way, "Gods, I gave you a surefire thing; a straight shot out and you slept right through it."

"O-oh . . ." Mayako trailed off.

So, it seemed like Mayako didn't do it all on her own. Well . . . that was kind of depressing. She felt kind of proud of getting Fenix to safety, too. Oh well . . .

"It's fine," Emma relented when it looked like Mayako was actually genuinely depressed by the revelation.

A moment passed before Fenix made his conclusion.

"Mm," Emma nodded. She regarded him with an almost impressed glance. That was pretty intuitive of him to figure out. Emma liked intuition.

Mayako snapped her head up. It might not have been a surprise to Fenix that Emma was planning on leaving, but it was to Mayako. She felt so happy to get Fenix out of danger, and now that she was almost there, she was even happier--only to encounter, what, this? More heartbreak . . .?

"Y-you're . . . you're really serious about that . . .?" Mayako whispered. She still wasn't making eye contact with Emma. Now she definitely couldn't . . .

Emma watched Mayako's expression fall and frowned slightly. "Y-yeah, I am."

Mayako stared at the ground. She sniffled, felt pain in her nose, and sulked her shoulders. This wasn't how things were supposed to go at all--but over the course of these days, Mayako barely had the strength to push on anymore. She was defeated. She might have hit Emma and stopped what could have been a horrible fate for everyone last night, but no matter what bravery she might have showed, the girl was still defeated in almost every way--defeated and tired, and all she wanted was some fraction of the old life to rest with . . .

Fenix frowned. Did Emma still not realize just how much she meant to Mayako? He was tempted to point this out, but stopped himself, knowing that Mayako would probably just get upset if he started something with her.

Ultimately, this wasn't his business, he realized. Which made him wonder why it annoyed him so much that it was still unresolved. But though he'd have liked to, there was no way he could help Mayako and Emma work out things between them--they went far further back than he did with either of them.

All he could do was give them some privacy, and home they could work something out on their own. "There's clothing in here, right?" he asked, hoisting the bag up. "I'm going to change."

And with that he took the bag further into the woods, enough that he was out of sight of both the village and the road, though probably not out of earshot unless they kept their voices down.

The girls were alone. Emma watched Fenix go, but Mayako could only keep her eyes on Emma for the moment. For a long time, neither girl said nothing, and stayed just as they were: Emma with her eyes averted from Mayako, and Mayako watching Emma's face as if she were looking for some crack of a grin, some indication that Emma was just pulling her leg and never planned to leave the village in the first place.

She didn't find that.

". . . wh-why, Emma?" Mayako finally asked.

It was hard enough to tell the Tsukimonos of her plan to leave; they seemed to expect it, though they hoped she would have stayed longer. Mayako, however, hadn't even the slightest suspicion that Emma no longer wished to stay in Hillcrest any longer.

"I just . . . can't," Emma replied, downcast, "I can't be here."

"You can . . ." Mayako insisted, though there was no confidence behind her voice, only the powerful hint of defeat and desperation, "Y-you have a home here . . ."

"I know," Emma frowned, "I know that, Mayako. But I . . ."

"Th-the Tsukimonos will never leave," Mayako reasoned quickly, feeling as if such rationale would get through to Emma, "A-and I won't, either. I-I'd never leave you, Emma."

"I know that," Emma whispered, a hint of regret upon her tongue.

"Th-then why?" Mayako looked up, to lock her watery eyes with Emma's own, "Wh-why do you want to leave? I-isn't that what you want? I-isn't that . . . what we all want . . .?"

Emma didn't think she could use that exact phrasing that she did when she spoke to the Tsukimonos. That was all impromptu, unplanned, unremembered, and all from the heart. Truthfully, Emma didn't feel like that had much of that left. But she took a deep breath and tried.

"My heart just won't be in it, Mayako," Emma reasoned with a sad smile, "It's . . . out there, somewhere. It's out there, looking for . . . for where Davis and Sarah and Eld are, where they've gone; or . . . or maybe I'll just make my own journey. M-maybe I'll find it-- maybe I'll find them, maybe I'll find nothing at all. Maybe I'll just walk a hundred miles and feel better. Maybe I'm just being an idiot kid who's running away from home for no reason at all, I don't know. All I know is that there's something out there, there's something I need to find. Something that'll make this feel less . . . hollow . . ."

Mayako turned her eyes to Emma's feet. Emma said nothing further. There was a long silence between them.

"Mayako, look," Emma spoke softly as she approached Mayako, and as gently as she could, reached to take Mayako's hands, "I can't leave forever."

Emma clasped Mayako's hands in hers, prompting Mayako to look into her friend's eyes again. Mayako was clearly on the verge of crying again, and Emma almost felt tears stinging at her eyes. She was going to leave. She had to leave. There was just something too strong stopping her from being comfortable here. She had regrets since last night, but that wasn't going to stop her.

In madness, she nearly burned this village to the ground.

Emma couldn't stay here. She needed to leave; she needed to get better, somehow, and somewhere else--somewhere that she didn't call home.

"We can have a home with the Tsukimonos, a good home, so . . ." Emma smiled reassuringly--perhaps both for Mayako and herself, "I'll come back home."

"When . . .?" Mayako asked; she sniffled again, but was able to ignore the pain this time.

Emma looked out, down the road that lead to Galaens. She tightened her brow and wondered if Sarah and Davis took the same path out of town. She knew Eld did.

Without looking back to Mayako, Emma replied thoughtfully--philosophically, but warmly, "When I find whatever they were looking for, I guess."

He only caught the tail end of the conversation; he hadn't meant to eavesdrop, but he had to know when to return, since he doubted either of them would go looking for him if he was changing clothes. Sensing that even if the conversation wasn't over he could probably come out without disrupting anything, he emerged from the shadows between the trees.

Now dressed in something other than a hospital gown, he looked much more like the adventurer he claimed to be. His black jeans were loose enough to allow him to move freely, held in place by a plain brown belt. Clipped to the belt was a small sheathed dagger.

The only oddity was the shirt, which was clearly not made for him. It was loose enough to fit his thin frame, but it was too short--it left his wrists and midriff exposed. Not only did that cause him to look a bit silly in his opinion, but it would be cold, and it exposed various bruises he'd received the previous night.

Still, it was much better than the hospital gown. "Ready when you are," he stated. Though, he was in no rush; wearing real clothing again--even the too small shirt--had him feeling much better than he had in...well, in six months. He had little doubt that even if he was spotted, he could flee into the woods and evade capture with little difficulty.

"Yeah," Emma nodded to Fenix.

She was ready to leave Hillcrest behind--for now. She still had a home here, and as she promised Mayako, she would return to it, but for now, her thoughts were elsewhere--out to wherever Sarah, Davis, and Eld were-- yet . . . rather suddenly, she thought about someone else. She thought about Mayako.

Emma was ready to leave Hillcrest, but Mayako was not ready to be alone. Emma restrained the urge to sigh. If she had the strength to stay and try and get help here in Hillcrest, for Mayako, she would've--but in the end, it was Emma that snapped under the stress of their circumstances and not Mayako. It was Mayako, in the end, that carried all the strength between them, whether she knew it or not.

"I'm sorry, Mayako," Emma declared with a sad smile, "For everything."

Mayako looked to Emma's feet again, a tear finally streaking down her right cheek. She bit her lower lip to evade the want to cry, in fear that she might collapse as she did last night, and cry for hours.

She did now, however, say anything to Emma.

After a length of silence followed between them, Emma glanced up to Fenix, then back to the road on which they had to travel. Fenix needed to get out of here soon, and so did Emma . . .

Emma looked to Mayako one last time, but refrained from moving in to embrace her, though she had the want to. Emma didn't feel like she had that right.

"Goodbye, Mayako . . ." Emma whispered, heaved in a deep breath, and turned her back on Hillcrest, her hometown, and took the first steps to leaving it.

Emma's first steps would be stopped abruptly as Fenix grabbed her by the shoulders. "Stop being difficult. That's not how you leave home." He then turned her around and shoved her towards Mayako.

Was I this difficult at her age? he wondered to himself. He made a mental note to ask Zach if--no, when he found him.

Once Emma was done, Fenix stepped in, but he wasn't sure quite what to say at first. Goodbye didn't seem appropriate; he certainly wasn't as close to Mayako as Emma was.

After a few moments of awkward silence, he finally decided on, "Thank you for everything. And...don't worry. I'll take care of her." The last part surprised him somewhat, as he hadn't intended to take on Emma as a charge or anything, but if she was going to be traveling there was probably no avoiding it.

And...despite everything he went through, he couldn't shake the feeling of him owing both of them a great deal more. Six months of care, six months where he lay still as tragedies occurred and he could do nothing to stop them. Perhaps by guiding Emma, he could start to repay that debt.

Under any other circumstances, Emma would have slapped Fenix. He might have effectively saved Emma from a potentially terrible fate last night, and she might have beat the hell out of him for little to no reason at all prior to that, but she wasn't going to deal with someone forcing her hand.

But, of course, he was forcing her to embrace Mayako before she left, and under these circumstances, she couldn't justify hitting Fenix. She might later, though, sometime when they're on the path--just kick his crutch out from under him and scold him for this. Emma was not against this idea at all. In fact, it was practically guaranteed at this point. She paid Fenix a glare to solidify this plan in her mind.

Mayako, however, did not see Emma glaring at Fenix. As soon as Emma was standing close to her, Mayako felt a twitch in her arms, followed in short by an almost compulsive embrace. It caught Emma by surprise, who tensed up when Mayako through her arms around her. For a long moment, Emma stood still, frozen in place, as a tearful Mayako buried her face down into Emma's shoulder and clung to her as if trying to keep her in Hillcrest.

It was . . . halfhearted, awkward. Mayako practically clutched onto Emma, while Emma could only weakly wrap one arm around her friend.

Emma simply didn't feel that she had the right to hold onto Mayako, not right now, not so soon since last night, and certainly not while she could still feel a strong want to break someone or something, without a need for rhyme or reason to justify it.

So she didn't--she couldn't. Fenix didn't understand that. Emma would later make sure that he comprehended it fully, even if she had to beat the logic into his skull with a wooden sword.

It took a moment for Mayako to loosen up, sniffle, and pull away from Emma. Emma provided the girl a sad smile before stepping back and putting space between them again. Their goodbye, in the end, was an unspoken one, comprising mutually sad smiles and mutually regretful stares.

Emma paid one last thoughtful, but rueful, glance to Mayako, before turning, wordlessly, and following the path to Galaens.

"P-please be safe . . ." Mayako whispered to Emma and Fenix both, as she wiped the tears from her eyes and fought to keep from shedding more. It was a losing battle.

You're going to have to learn to take what you can get while you can. But he wasn't going to lecture Emma, at least not right now. "Take care of yourself," he commented as he too turned around and set off towards Galaens.

Hillcrest had been good to him up until this point, so he did regret slightly that he was leaving on such terrible terms with it. Without that idiot around, I thought my days of getting kicked out of towns was over. But in this case, it couldn't be helped, and he began to wonder how many of those times, unbeknown to him, his mentor had chosen to be kicked out for someone else's sake.

He cracked a small smile. Probably not as often as he'd like me to believe.

His body was still weak, but his mood was improving. He had lots to do--he had to check on the church, find Zach, and possibly look into whatever that group that knew about his magic was--not to mention keep an eye on a moody twelve year old.

But now that he had the strength to do so, he couldn't help but feel like things were finally looking up...