After a round of introductions, Yoruichi told Kisuke about the help they provided and Astraea's friendly relation with Hestia.
Thinking for a bit, Kisuke suddenly asked Yoruichi and Kuroka, "How many Elixirs do you have?"
"Just two.", answered Yoruichi.
"Three with me.", added Kuroka.
Since Kisuke couldn't access his inventory currently, he could only rely on Yoruichi and Kuroka's own inventories. However, since they're not 'Kisuke', they didn't amass random things.
Closing his eyes, Kisuke rubbed his chin while muttering for everyone to hear, "Hmm... That's a shame. I don't have enough to give you a box."
Hearing that, Astraea immediately panicked, "Stop that! Yoruichi and Kuroka already saved my children and that's more than enough!"
Meanwhile, Astraea's children were shocked at his remark, 'H-he really did think about giving a box of those Elixirs...', was what they all thought.
"Then how about this? You can request me any one thing and I'll personally fulfill it? Of course, under the impression that I'll be able to do it."
Shaking her head, Astraea replied, "You don't have to. As I said, what Yoruichi and Kuroka have done was more than enough and I still think that we're indebted to them."
Behind her, Mildred, Cecil, April and Liz all nodded in unison.
"Please accept it Astraea-sama.", Yoruichi suddenly chimed in, "This guy is one of the more stubborn people out there and won't stop doing this. Just accept it and you don't even have to request him anything."
Astraea thought about her words and indeed, she could just simply accept Kisuke's offer and forget about it. Sighing, Astraea finally nodded to the smiling Kisuke, "I gladly accept it. Thank you."
"If you ever need something, please don't hesitate to tell me~." For Kisuke, it was enough for her to accept his offer. In any case, if they were to come across a 'problem' they would certainly remember this.
"Now then, Astraea-sama. Thank you again for everything, but we have to leave now.", Kisuke suddenly changed the subject.
Astraea immediately disagreed, "Now? It's already afternoon and traveling at this time of the day won't be advisable. On top of that, you've just woken up and haven't even eaten anything. You should rest and regain your stamina first."
Kisuke stood up and looked outside, "We're fine. As you've probably noticed, Yoruichi and Kuroka are pretty strong and I do have my own expertise. We're also already behind on our projected schedule so we have to move on."
Yoruichi and Kuroka also stood up and started packing up.
Seeing Kisuke's expression, Astraea sighed, "Fine... But be careful out there. I would hate to hear of something bad happening to Hestia's children."
"Thank you."
Since they didn't have much, to begin with, Yoruichi and Kuroka were able to pack everything up within just two minutes. The Astraea Familia accompanied the three until they reached the gates of the village.
After saying their final farewells, Kisuke, Yoruichi and Kuroka took the direct path towards the city of Pandemonium.
Once they were out of their sights, Mildred asked Astraea, "Yoruichi and Kuroka are going to be fine, but won't there be some problems for that guy?"
Astraea smiled and answered, "They are going to be just fine."
"But for them to leave just like that... It seems that they're really in a hurry. Too bad... Astraea-sama has been looking forward to hearing about Ryuu-senpai from him as apparently, he knew more about her than those two.", muttered Cecil.
Looking at the direction of the far distant Orario, Astraea replied as a gentle wind blew her face, "Don't worry about it. We'll have more chances later on."
Astraea, however, knew that Kisuke was lying about being in a hurry due to being behind the schedule, but she also noticed that he seemed to be enduring something so she didn't force them to stay for a while.
"That's true...", Mildred nodded in agreement before turning towards her fellow Familia members, "Alright, let's go home and rest up early. Thanks to Yoruichi and Kuroka, we were able to clear the monsters within the surroundings of the village, giving us plenty of time. However, we should still hurry as this isn't the only village suffering from the increased number of monster attacks, so we should move to the next one early tomorrow."
" " "Roger!" " ", answered the three in unison before Liz suddenly raised a question, "How about the mysterious mist that suddenly enveloped the forest three days ago? We still don't know anything about it."
"Cecil already sent a letter to Pandemonium regarding this matter and other Familias within the vicinity should have too. A well-equipped Familia should arrive any time now to investigate so let's not worry about this unknown problem."
April, on the other hand, turned to Astraea and asked, "What about you, Astraea-sama? What do you think about this strange incident?"
Astraea shook her head, "I don't have any idea what it was. Maybe it was a rare kind of magic that went wrong or maybe something else entirely.", but truth to be told, Astraea had a feeling that this phenomenon had something to do with Kisuke, Yoruichi and Kuroka. But as usual, she didn't reveal her thoughts about them.
.
.
.
Deep within the forest, the three suddenly stopped walking as Kisuke started bleeding throughout his body, "Crap... This is harder than I thought."
Kuroka wanted to touch him but stopped her hand mid-air, "A-are you really going to be fine, nyaa? You won't suddenly drop dead on us, would you?" Since she didn't know what was going on, she couldn't help but be extremely worried.
Kisuke only chuckled as his wounds suddenly started closing up as if the time was being rewound on him, "Don't worry. After that incident, I actually became a lot harder to kill. I presume that even if you separate my head from my body, I would still be fine."
However, after that remark, Kisuke flinched at the angry glare that he received from the two of them, "Even if that is true, please don't ever do that... Not even as a joke.", declared Kuroka. Both of them knew that Kisuke might really try severing his head, but between Yoruichi and Kuroka, the latter was much more furious due to the fact that she wasn't really used to Kisuke's dangerous antics.
Raising both of his hands in surrender, Kisuke replied, "Okay. I promise I won't do that." Not wanting to be in this awkward situation anymore, Kisuke immediately changed the topic, "However, thanks to my condition, I will have to relearn all of my daily activities like a baby. With that, you'll have to be my bodyguards, until I can fight back without accidentally killing my opponents."
"So how are you going to learn how to move around? By just simply walking?", asked Yoruichi.
"Of course not! There's no better teacher than experience, be it a success or a failure! So to start with, let's go bash some monster heads before teleporting back."
"That's learning how to run before you can walk, nyaa!!!", retorted Kuroka.