Sylvia and Sakura stepped through the portal and came face to face with the apartment building somewhere across the world of where Hikari and the two of them had once met at. The blonde quietly took in her surroundings in intrigue and hesitation. The furthest amount of distance she had moved from the manor back in France had been to the small countryside town a short distance away to buy groceries at the market or for some other mundane reason. So to say that she was a bit spooked from the sudden jump to a modern cityscape was quite the understatement.

Hikari could see Sylvia lost in her curiosity around them, enough to completely miss her introduction into the building.

“You'd think Neo Tokyo wouldn't be that exciting, nya~” Sakura commented and then looked towards Hikari, her tail swaying left and right. The current apartment for the guild housing was pretty surprising. Sakura had been expecting something more...well, official. A house, an old rundown warehouse, even some weird ass dog out nobody would ever check.

But an apartment building? That was a first.

Sylvia came back from her little exploration in place, having smiled weakly at Hikari. It was all so new and distracting that she didn't have time to register every new thing.

“Désolée, Madame Hikari. I've never been in a city as busy as this. It will take a while to get used to is all...”
“Heh, you never venture into the city much, do you, Master?”
“N-Not very much, no. I usually tended to stay at the manor being the Head Maid. I was too busy to really leave.”
“Oh...”
“In more important matters, thank you for taking us here, Madame Hikari. It's quite a lovely base.”

Sakura's confusion and smugness showed a bit more apprehension at complimenting the home than her master's, but Sylvia would be happy for any kind of roof over their heads. There was a woman standing near the exterior of the building that Hikari introduced as the guild leader of ANTHEM, a smaller woman with similar blonde hair to Sylvia's. The two maids, dressed to the nines in the uniform and full regalia, would would give a bow to the guild leader.

“Bonjour, Madame Hana.” Sylvia spoke, her tone hushed and whisper-like in volume. She tended to look away every now and again when eye contact was made, but returned it back after a moment. “I am Sylvia. It's an honor to meet you. Madame Hikari has told me a bit of ANTHEM and you already.”
“And I'm Sakura! Nice to meet you, nya~” The cat maid greeted the leader, appearing much more bubbly and restless than her master gave the impression of.

Both stood perfectly in unison before the guild leader, two maids happily awaiting Hana's greeting.

Hikari
Hana Sakuyuki

"Anthem. I don't think I've ever heard of them before. But Tokyo is quite a far ways from where I lived..."

Sylvia said to Hikari while the party would continue their journey through the woods and back towards the village where they would deposit the carcass at and then leave to, presumably, the estate Hikari mentioned. Sakura bobbed along while listening and absorbing the information to what the other woman was presenting to them. Her ears wiggled in glee, tail swaying left and right at the news.

"What's got you into a good mood, Sakura?"
“We actually get to sleep in a manor! I hope they have lots of salmon there, nya~”

Sylvia laughed softly to herself, stepping inside of the town with the party as their kill had amassed quite the crowd. Not enough for a proper large town, but a quaint little community that could certainly use this for food during the wait for the harvest. Hikari's pet set the kill down, with Sakura covering up Sylvia's eyes again as they got rid of the corpse and spun her around to face the dazzling well dressed woman.

Sylvia smiled at her question, nodding her head along. "It would be an honor to meet your guild leader."

Her hand fell into Hikari's after some hesitation. It felt warm, inviting even. Something that she really hadn't done before coming to this strange little game that had turned her world upside down. Perhaps this was a new chance to establish a foundation in this world before she could plot further, with Sakura nuzzling up next to her as the cat girl's hand fell in afterwards. After that, the three were off into the portal together.

Hikari

"Thank you. It's difficult some days, but I hope that they're out there, somewhere."

Sylvia began to look back at Hikari but had her sight blocked by the her summon as the cat girl pushed her head away from seeing the dead body. Deep down, she was grateful for the help to keep her lunch from being expelled out. Sakura's tail swished back and forth while looking back at the weird snake with wings that was currently carrying the deer as if it were a dog with a ball in its mouth. It was cute, in a sort of strange way, but who was she to call anything weird! She was a cat girl maid!

“It is a pretty wacky world! Earth-chan seems to have all the power it can ever hope for! It even created me nya~”
"Speaking of which, do you remember what you were like before we met?" Sylvia asked.
“Huh? What to you mean?”
"You know. Before I loaded in. What was life like?"
“I'm not sure...I guess it was quiet. Maybe.”
Sylvia gave her a confused look, just as much as she did back.
"Maybe? Did you know where you were?"
“Not really. I only really remember waiting for you on that roof come to think of it, Master. I can't remember anything before that, nya~”

It was worth a shot. Sylvia focused back on the conversation and would continue looking forward down the trail while the party walked on. Hikari spoke up about a place to rest at, something nice that the maid would have enjoyed immensely. "It's a lot to consider...but a place to rest would be much appreciated, Madame Hikari." she smiled gently, letting out a soft exhale.

"It will be nice to finally get out of these heels for a change..."
“I'll say. Even with the system making it easy to walk in these, my ankles are killing me, nya~”

Hikari

The apology that she hadn't met any of the family and only knew them by name did take some of the wind out of the sails of the girl. Her hopeful smile and wonder were dashed on the spot, her gaze lowered until it was anchored into the ground. "Oh, I see..." Sylvia replied with a soft exhale. The comment about being happy to be out of service would only worsen the feelings of doubt that Sylvia had, causing her to remain silent and down to the ground, lost amidst the sea of thoughts inside of her head.

“Sorry, she gets like this over her old Masters, nya~” Sakura apologized to Hikari. “We'll be ready to go when you give the signal!”

The woman was off and Sylvia was still frowning, though waited patiently as she could. Sakura, meanwhile, would gently pat her back and offer some words of encouragement to get her mind out of the gutter. The two had been strangers still, although were starting to come together more often.

“It's alright, Master. You're used to this answer by now, right?”
"..."
“I'm sure your Master is out there somewhere in the world. Probably surviving and causing trouble as usual. It's not all bad being away from them, isn't it?”
"..."
Sakura's back pat evolved into a lengthy hug, her ears flicking as Sylvia while the cat girl did her best to try and cheer her up. “Besides, I'll help you out until we find them, okay? SO no more moping around. What if your Master saw you like this, nya?”
"...Thank you."

Hikari gave the signal, as the two maids were quick to respond to her. They both moved in a position to where the oncoming deer would be forced to do along a path that led directly into one of the traps. Sylvia stood with her arms spread wide as did Sakura, who'd puff up her tail and hiss at the deer. It barreled along, swerving to avoiding hitting them, and with a loud and organic crunching sound, the trap had been sprung.

“Awesome! We caught it!”

Hikari

One brief search later had resulted in no such people nearby. They were truly alone out here, with only each other's company to keep them company. Sylvia and Sakura made their way down the roof of the building they were currently inside of, managing to get back to the street level. It had been a decent amount of time to pass since getting to know her new maid friend, apparently.

“May I ask a question?” Sylvia asked.
“Sure, go ahead, master!”
“Are you actually a cat? Or are those just accessories?”
“They're 100% real! Jealous that you're not the cutest cat maid you've ever seen, nya?~”

Sylvia went to open her mouth and answer before her phone vibrated as a message popped up from that same sender who had given the maid her class.

From: Earth-chan [break]
To: Sylvia [break]
Subject: Welcome! [break]
Bonjour, my lovely maid! This should be a pretty easy tutorial for somebody of your caliber. There's a bunch of ruined stuff in this city, but if you clean it up, you'll find a way back home! Or not. But it beats starving to death in an abandoned city, right? Good luck!

“So we just...clean?” Sylvia asked her partner in a confused tone. “And we'll find our way out of this abandoned town?”
“Seems like!”

The head maid sighed, craning her head all around their immediate surroundings. With the city in tatters like this, that portal out of the city could be virtually anywhere! How were they going to find it in all this mess? And what if it was underneath something they couldn't clean up? The cat girl continued to watch her master as she quietly mused to herself as Sylvia exhaled and looked back at the part of the city they were in.

“Let's get to work.”

So far, so good. The clientele was very male, alongside the many ups and downs that came with that territory, but Sylvia had honestly been expecting as much. She took people's orders after some time, walked to the kitchen and waited for the owner to fix everything up before delivering it to the people that had ordered. The day was passing by quickly, despite everything going on. There were some troublesome customers like any other job, but Sakura was handling it well. Her loud and boisterous nature leant itself to stuff going on in the bar.

“Royale Roast and 3 Draft Beers here! Get out of my way!” Sakura pushed past a couple of men in the way of her delivery to the table far off in the corner. There were some words exchanged and a tail that puffed itself up out at anger, but things settled down once the owner had managed to step out and toss a knife in the wall. One of many, based on the many cracks in the walls.

With the lunchtime rush over, everyone was provided a break for the time being. Sakura and Sylvia would share a table together, munching on some food provided by the kitchen. Like always, Sakura had ordered the freshly cooked Salmon and went to town the moment the dish was brought out. Sylvia had gotten the chicken and mushroom fricassee and chewed idly.

"This is turning out to be somewhat normal for a change." Sylvia said as she pushed some piece of chicken around with her fork.
“Yeah, totally! I was gunna throw sauce at that guy from earlier though. Why does everybody mess with the tail, nya?”

Sakura's order was straight forward enough to fulfill, the maid receiving her large sized salmon in an instant. She caught the fish offered to her with both paws and happily dug into her snack. The first bite was large and ravenous, not bothering to really bother with taking her time with things. “This is great! Thanks, nya~” She went to town on her food, with multiple bites working on the fish. In no time at all, she had finished about half of what had been given to her.

Sylvia, conversely, would look down at the plate she had been given by the smaller women. It was a nice wooden plate, but the site of the food confused her. The head maid remained quiet as she looked at the burger inquisitively, as if she was trying to inspect the genetic makeup of the being. In truth, Sylvia had little idea about how to go about eating something like this. She had only really eaten more refined dishes and things, as opposed to the generic and frankly disgusting fast food that many people spent countless hours consuming an a given day. But with no knowledge on how to eat one, Sylvia was at a loss. Was it like a sandwich of some kind? She truly didn't know.

"Thank you." She thanked DeeDee in a whisper-like voice and slowly picked at her sandwich. Hands peeled the upper bun off as she held it in between two fingers and took a small bite out of the top of it. She continued taking bites here and there, eventually finishing the top layer and moved onto the second accessory to the burger while watching the others consume their food. Dee Dee continued to explain a bit more about what the kitchen, and by extension, she could do.

deedee
Lowell
kurai