"My, my. This place looks like a ghost town!" Maria exclaimed.

After a long trek through the forest, the trio finally arrived at their location— Chocholow. Besides the three that had just arrived, there was no one in sight. Wooden houses with dark roofs lined the streets. Some of the doors were open, but when Mary looked into the houses, she couldn't see or smell anyone. Whatever house she peeked into, there were items strewn out and about, as if whoever lived there wasn't planning to leave for long. There were pots still on the wood cook stove, children's toys scattered on the rickety floor, and the most incriminating fact, the doors weren't even closed.

As she continued her search for any life, Mary peered back at Maria, who had a pondering look on her face. The teen opened her mouth to speak.

"How did the Order ‌find a place so far from anywhere else?" she asked. While the periwinkle-haired girl could see how the Order might believe a shard of Innocence was around here, she wasn't too sure how they even knew about this small town in the first place. Perhaps it had to do with the burbling sound she could hear in the distance.

'Wait, burbling?' she thought. Suddenly, her eyes widened.

There were few things in the world that could make a sound described as 'burbling.' One of these being a river.

'Besides,' she reasoned. 'the village people need a water source, yeah?'

Before Maria could reply to Mary's first question, she asked her another.

"Could the river nearby have a clue about the people's disappearance?" she questioned the General.

For a second, Maria looked surprised. However, she quickly returned to her original expression.

"It certainly could." Maria replied. Georges nodded in agreement.

"To answer your first question, Lady Mary, Chocholow does business with several bigger towns, and those towns hadn't heard from the people here in a significantly long period." he explained. "Leave it to Branch Chief Howell to have contact with one of those towns!" The Finder's eyes sparkled with admiration.

"Well then," Maria spoke. "shall we go to the said river?" the tall Exorcist questioned as Ur-Canpy rested on her shoulder. Mary and Georges nodded.

-

Mary knew the river wasn't too far away from the village, as she could hear ‌the water rather clearly as they moved north of Chocholow. Once she caught her first glimpse of the body of water, she dashed to it. However, the girl never made it to the river. Instead, she tripped, got her leg hooked onto some type of rope, and was flung up—hanging from a tree by her leg.

"Hah!?" she yelped, hands keeping her skirt from moving.

"A booby-trap!?" Both Georges and Maria looked baffled.

As the trio stood (or in Mary's case, hung) there surprised, a boy rushed out from behind the tree, laughing.

"I can't believe you fell into that rabbit trap!" he clutched his stomach as he continued to cackle.

"Who—who are you!?" Mary questioned, flabbergasted, as she pulled on the rope. Eventually, the bind gave way, and the teen fell onto the dirt floor. She scowled at the kid, who looked no older than ten.

'How'd I not notice this brat?' she thought to herself. 'Was I too focused on the river?'

As she fell deeper into her train of thought, both Maria and Georges snapped out of their shock. Georges went to Mary to help her up as Maria adjusted her glasses and spoke.

"You must be a resident of Chocholow, yes?" the General walked up to the boy. He looked up at her and gulped. She was much taller than him and had an unreadable look on her face.

"Yeah, that's right..." the boy squeaked out.

Suddenly, Maria's face changed and a warm smile appeared on her face. She extended her hand to him.

"It's nice to meet you, boy!" she exclaimed happily. The boy's face twitched as he awkwardly shook her hand with his small one.

Mary shook herself out of her thoughts and looked at the scene in front of her dumbfounded.

"I don't think I'll ever understand Maria..." she whispered to Georges.

He chucked. "That's just how she is."

The wavy-haired teenager stood up; Ur-Canpy flew close to the girl as she glanced at the little boy. He stared at the golem perplexingly.

"What's your name?" she asked. The boy's previous laughter had irked Mary, but now she was level-headed enough to speak to him.

"It's Stefan, but who are you guys...and that black pigeon thing next to you?" he asked, tilting his head.

"We're part of an organization called the Black Order. The woman next to you is General Maria Krestchmann. The girl next to me is Mary and the 'pigeon thing' next to her is Ur-Canpy." Georges responded. "We're here because there were reports of unusual activity. Speaking of which, where is everyone? When we got here, Chocholow was completely deserted."

Stefan frowned. "I dunno," he replied, rubbing his arm. "Everyone's been disappearing lately, and now, it's just me." the boy looked down, his blond bangs covering his face.

"Were you trying to catch a rabbit for food?" Mary asked, holding up the rope. Stefan nodded.

Maria crouched down to be at the boy's level and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Do you have any idea where they might have gone? Certainly, this is not a common occurrence."

Stefan looked up at Maria and shook his head.

"First, one lady disappeared after going in the direction of the river. Other townspeople started looking for her, but then they disappeared too!" he grabbed Maria's arms, distressed. "Eventually, a search party was formed with the rest of the townspeople and they left, leaving only me." The boy was shaking.

"I don't know the direction to any other towns, and it's dangerous to be in the forest alone at night," he exclaimed. "The search group took our only boat and left with it. There's a good chance they're over the river, but if I try to swim, the current will throw and kill me!"

Maria turned to the river. She narrowed her eyes.

"Hmm, that's right. There's no way a child as small as you could swim past that." the tall woman said. She put her slim finger on her lip, a contemplative look etched on her face.

Mary also gazed at the rushing river. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. As she glanced at Stefan, the teen grew hesitant. Taking in a deep breath, she mustered the courage to speak.

"What if..." she started. "I transformed. I'm sure I could jump that distance easily."

Maria clapped her hands together and smiled. "You most definitely could!"

"That's a good idea, Mary," Georges exclaimed. "But are you sure?"

Mary gave him an assuring nod. "Yeah. I'm sure."

"Hey, whaddya mean by 'transform?'" Stefan questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"You'll see," Mary responded. "But, um, I'm gonna warn you: I don't look very nice."

"Huh? Wha—"

"Therion!" she called out. A flash of light and black smoke surrounded her. From the eruption of light and smoke was the black, wolf-like beast. Stefan looked at Mary with wide eyes and a gaping mouth.

"That's Mary?!" he said, surprised, as he turned to face Maria.

"That's right," Maria said, putting a hand on her hip. "This is the form she calls 'Therion.'"

"But Therion is..." he made a large motion with his hands. "and Mary—"

Maria chuckled. "It seems very odd at first, doesn't it? For now, just understand that is Mary."

Stefan narrowed his eyes at the beast, but then shrugged and shook his head.

"Lady Mary's motioning for us to get on. We should go." Georges said.

"Right." Maria nodded. Stefan clutched at her coat sleeve.

"Please let me come with you!" he begged. Maria ruffed his blond hair.

"Don't worry, that was the plan. It would be much more dangerous to leave you alone."

The three (and Ur-Canpy) mounted the big beast as Mary jumped across the river.

-

"I hope we find them." Stefan frowned as he looked around. The group was now on the other side of the river, still carried by Mary.

"We all want that as well," Georges said.

Suddenly, Mary raised her head.

"Lady Mary? What is—Woah!" Georges yelled as she dashed north.

She stopped at a small, wooden, house-like building. The trio got off as she reverted, stumbling.

"I thought I saw a building in the distance. I'm glad my sight is still fine," she explained as she shielded her face from Stefan, muttering the last sentence to herself.

"Let's go in then; there might be a clue about the townspeople's disappearance in there," Maria said.

Inside, the wood building was dark and dusty. It was like the other houses in town, except it looked like it was abandoned for a much longer time. There was dust everywhere—on the floor, the minuscule amount of furniture, the ragged curtains.

Stefan frowned. "It doesn't look like anyone's been here in forever."

"Yeah, but..." Mary pointed to the floor. There were footprints outlined from the dust. Narrowing her eyes, the teen followed the trail of prints—leading to a half-opened door. She swung the chipped door open, revealing a small room and an unusually shiny floor-length mirror. Mary rushed to the object. Her rhodonite-colored eyes widened.

"This feeling—!" she gasped.

"I can feel it too," Maria said. "It's Innocence!"

"Yeah." Mary nodded, putting her hand on the golden frame of the mirror. "It's definitely Innocence, but..."

As she put her hand on the actual mirror, the object pulled her hand into it. She yelped and, with all her strength, pulled her hand out of the mirror. She stumbled back.

"It—it tried to pull me in!" she exclaimed, shocked.

Stefan sped over to Mary and stared intensely at the mirror.

"This mirror must've pulled everyone in!" Stefan said.

"There's a very high possibility of that," Georges said. "But if we go in, there's a risk of us being trapped."

Maria hummed. "Yes, but the Innocence crystal must be in there. If we can get to the core, the phenomenon is sure to stop."

"I agree with Maria," Mary spoke up. "It's a risk, but if the townspeople really are in there, I think it's a risk worth taking."

Georges sighed. "All right. Should Stefan come with us into the mirror?"

"Of course. Like I said before, it's dangerous to leave him alone." Maria said.

"I want to help in any way I can!" Stefan said.

Mary nodded. "Let's go."

The group entered the mirror just as a shadowy figure stepped into the building.

-

*old* A/N: Hi hello! Every time I say I'll have a consistent schedule, I disappear again.... Oh well, please accept this extra long chapter as an apology XD. It would've been longer, but I'm splitting this into two parts.

Thanks for reading! Votes and comments are always appreciated.