Mary pouted.

"Ugh, this is too hard!" She complained, slouching in her seat.

"How will you communicate if you don't know the language?" Georges exclaimed.

Georges— bless him, was attempting to teach the young girl German. Unfortunately for the Finder, she wasn't exactly achieving much.

Mary sighed and looked over at Ur-Canpy, who was sitting on top of Maria's briefcase.

"Sometimes I'm jealous of you, Ur," she mumbled. "Not having to learn all this..."

Ur-Canpy merely looked back at the girl.

The roughness of the train only worsened her situation, giving her a headache. The scratching sounds coming from Maria's seat right behind her didn't help either.

Speaking of Maria, she stopped whatever she was doing (much to Mary's relief) and spoke.

"Georges, let me try teaching Mary." She said.

"Are you sure?" Georges asked with surprise showing on his face.

When it came to languages, Maria was far from being a teacher. Every time the group went to a new country, she'd always rely on Georges to help Mary. To the young girl, it seemed like Maria wasn't interested in anything other than exorcist work and her "doctor" work.

"Yes, yes. I'm very sure." The older exorcist replied. "Come sit over here, Mary, and bring my briefcase with you."

With caution (as the train was rocking back and forth), Mary moved from her seat to the booth Maria was in. The young girl sat in the seat facing Maria. With the briefcase now next to her, the platinum-haired woman took out several tools from the bag.

"Whatcha working on?" Mary asked, raising her eyebrow.

"It's nothing, really. Just a mask." Maria replied, focused on continuing her work.

"A mask?"

"Yes, a mask."

The periwinkle-haired girl narrowed her eyes. The mask was white and looked like it would only cover one side of a person's face. Why anyone would wear something like that? Mary didn't know.

"Weren't you going to help me with German?" Mary said. That was the reason she moved seats in the first place, after all.

"I will. Give me a moment."

Mary groaned.

'I hope we get to Brandenburg soon.' She thought, looking outside the train window.

-

The architecture of Brandenburg an der Havel, or Brandenburg in short, reminded Mary of her time in Belgium, yet remained distinctly different. The group was walking through a place called the Dominsel, which comprised several old buildings and St. Peter and Paul Cathedral

Mary stared at the cathedral, awestruck. She still wasn't used to the sizes of the churches. They made the monastery she once lived in look like a little pebble.

"It's the biggest cathedral in Brandenburg." A voice said from behind her. It was Maria. The taller woman walked towards Mary.

"Are you familiar with this place?" Mary asked.

"Quite well, yes. I spent much of my youth here."

"You grew up in Brandenburg?"

Maria nodded. "But that was a long time ago." The exorcist then walked away, seeming to be interested in something else.

Mary frowned. Physically, Maria looked no older than someone in their early 30s, yet she acted like she was an old woman. The young girl had attempted to ask Maria her age before, but she never got a definite answer.

"Ah!" she exclaimed, realizing something.

Maria, Georges, and even Ur-Canpy were nowhere to be seen.

"You've gotta be kidding me..."

The only two people who knew their way around were gone, and Mary barely knew the language! It was as if God had decided this would not be her day and dumped all the bad luck onto the girl.

With how tall Maria was, it wouldn't be hard to find her in the crowd, but Mary saw no signs of the exorcist at all. She already didn't know where Georges was, as he had disappeared the moment they got to the city, but Maria was just here!

'She couldn't have gone that far...' Mary thought to herself.

During her search, she overhead a voice. One that was speaking English. Although she could tell it wasn't Maria or Georges's voices, she hoped the owner of the voice could help her.

Following the sound of the voice, it led her to a dark alley. In the alley were two figures. A slimy-looking man with black hair and a boy with striking red hair. The boy looked near Mary's age, if not a few years older. The man held the boy by his shirt collar, clearly agitated.

"Zahlen Sie, Marian*!" He yelled.

"Was meinst du**? I already did!" The boy spat.

Impulsively, Mary shouted.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?!"

The man dropped his hold on the boy and looked straight at her. Mary flinched.

'Shoot! I shouldn't have done that.' She thought.

"Ha? Wer bist du, madël***?" the man stepped towards her.

Knowing he could understand her, Mary took a deep breath and looked back at him. She would not run. Sure, it probably was a bad idea to yell at the guy, but she wouldn't run. That's not something Maria would do after all.

"Leave. This has nothing to do with you." The man said with a thick accent.

"Tut mir leid****, but I have no intention of leaving," Mary replied.

The man snarled.

"Then you asked for it!"

The man lunged at Mary, who swiftly dodged his attack, punching him square in the nose. He recoiled and yelped in pain, grasping onto his now broken and bruised nose.

"Why you!" The man lunged at her again, this time with a knife.

"Tch!" Mary grit her teeth.

Before the man could slash her, though, he fell to the ground, unconscious. The boy had kicked the back of his head.

"Ah.. thanks," Mary said. She still wasn't used to fighting actual people, let alone one much bigger than her. Fighting Akuma was one thing, but fighting people was a completely different problem.

The boy looked at her a frowned.

"You idiot! I could've taken care of this myself." He scolded.

Mary's left eye twitched.

"Huh? Whaddya mean?! You woulda been beaten to a pulp!"

"I-" he furrowed his eyebrows and sighed. "Never mind. What's your name? You're obviously not from here."

The young girl gave him her own frown but replied anyway.

"Just call me Mary." She said.

The shade of the alleyway was no longer blocking her view of the boy. The boy wore a white, long-sleeved shirt with black pants along with rectangular, metal-framed glasses. His fire-red hair was put up in a low ponytail and covered his left eye.

"Mary, huh? My name is—"

"Well, if it isn't Cross Marian!" a voice boomed out.

"Eek!" The boy— Cross, jumped, surprised.

Mary turned around.

"Maria?!" she exclaimed.

-

A/N: What's Cross's relationship with Maria? Find out in the next chapter! (Which will hopefully come out soon...)

Translations:
* - Pay up!
** - What do you mean?
*** - Who are you, girl?
**** - Sorry!