Friar Gardener

"Vinny, VINNY! Where are you!?" Sakura shouted as she stood in a boggy marsh.

After being sucked into the portal, Sakura had lost her grip on Vinny, separating the two. Sakura ended up landing in a boggy marsh, but Vinny was nowhere in sight, nor was anyone else for that matter.

As she continued to trudge around, she heard a faint moaning sound. She followed it to find two humanoid female figures, both covered completely in mud with just their eyes visible.

"Whoa, are you two from the festivalen" Sakura asked as she attempted to wipe the mud off.

To her surprise, the mud wouldn't budge and remained stuck to the two women. The women moaned in angst as Sakura stood puzzled at the sight.

"Welp, this stuff seems really sticky, so maybe I should find a river to wash you off in," Sakura shrugged as she pulled the muddy figures out and dragged them to the shore with her.

Sakura had lived for centuries, so she naturally had knowledge on many things, but what baffled her was the mud incasing the two women. At first glance, it appeared to be the same mud from the marsh, but it's composition was completely different.

Before Sakura could ponder further, a girl suddenly appeared before her.

"Whoa! Is this 4D!?" Nina exclaimed as she looked around.

"Who are you?"

"Nina Tsundere!"

"Hmm? If I recall you're from a manga."

"I am, but I was reborn in the modern world and live with Johan- AH! JOHAN!"

Nina looked around but found Johan was nowhere to be seen.

"So where'd you even come from then? I came from a portal in the sky, but you just poofed into existence right here."

Nina explained how she and Johan were watching the live stream, when they suddenly clicked on a link. The next thing she knew, she was here.

Sakura accepted her answer and then returned her focus to the two muddied women. She wanted to try and figure out who they were, but it was a bit difficult. One woman appeared to have massive breasts and had heterochromatic eyes, while the other had slightly smaller breasts and pink eyes, but notably lacked eyelashes.

One of the women did look familiar to Sakura though and as she thought long and hard... "AH! it's Milfmilk!"

Indeed, it certainly appeared that one of the women was Harumi Ginkawa, but the other was still a mystery.

"Hmm, maybe this is that bald girl that fought with her," Nina theorized.

This seemed plausible, meaning the two women had been identified to be Harumi and Cindy. Upon correctly guessing their identities, the two responded with muffled praises, though quickly descended into a series of muffled insults as they locked eyes with each other.

"Hmm, hmm. Seems these two fell into the mud and wrestled with one another," Nina theorized.

"Quite so, Nina. But the question remains as to how they got so sticky. The mud on their bodies is different from the mud in the bog, and I'm unable to wipe it off," Sakura frowned.

"Elementary, my dear Sakura."

"'Elementary'?"

"... I just wanted to say the line, ok."

"Regardless, we won't know the truth until we ask these two ourselves, which we can't as their mouths are covered.

"Mmph ngh mmph, ngh mmh [Well no shit, Sherlock]!" Cindy glared.

Nina began touching the mud, noting that it had not hardened, but was incredibly sticky. In fact, her hand ended up getting stuck for a bit, until Sakura managed to free her. Nina then inquired why Sakura was able to touch the mud just fine, to which Sakura explained away by saying that she was a tree girl.

Nina accepted the answer as she had witnessed Sakura trying to root herself in the ground before she was sucked into the portal. "Anyway, our next task should be to free those two. Sakura, can you carry both?"

"Naturally," Sakura smiled as she hoisted Harumi and Cindy over her shoulders.

As the group began walking away, a hooded figure began hovering behind them. "Ah, thee hat come ath last," he sneered aloud.

Sakura and Nina immediately spun around. "Who are you!?"

"My, hath ye forgotten mine voice?"

The figure then threw off his cloak to reveal himself to be... a friar with a kappa cut and goatee.

"Uh, you know him?" Sakura asked Nina.

Nina shook her head no, while Harumi and Cindy replied with confused muffled grunts, signifying they didn't recognize the man either.

"Sakura, it be I, your mortal enemy, Friar Gardener."

"Yeah, not ringing any bells."