Alright, here's the newest chapter. Enjoy.
Shortly after Sylvia left, Ethan headed upstairs and found the locker that he and Koneko shared. With the scan of his hand and eyes, he was allowed access.
Ethan stuffed his sword into his duffle bag before grabbing everything he and Koneko bring with them outdoors.
"You can turn into a kitten, right?"
Koneko cast her eyes downward and shifted on her feet, "Do I have to do it? I don't like using my abilities like that."
Ethan ruffled her hair, "If you don't want to do it, it's fine. It'll just make the job harder for both of us."
She looked up and he turned around, "Chase after Sylvia and keep an eye on her, but keep yourself invisible. I'll be close behind."
Koneko nodded, unsure.
"You know my scent?" She was more confident in this answer. "Alright, if you need help, get to me. I can't follow her because she knows me."
He scowled as he gave it thought. "I don't like banking on the fact she doesn't remember you. That's why I want you to become a kitten and mark her. So you can track her with your scent."
He looked over his shoulder and smiled as she raised her head, "But if you need time to recover from the bad memories, I won't force you to transform. Let's go."
"I'll do it," Koneko said softly, "I just mark her?"
"Preferably, I'd like you to stick with her as a kitten to defend her, while I can track you," Ethan answered, "But this one is your choice."
Koneko only looked at him with her blank expression before she trot off, "...I'll mark her, and only mark."
"Okay, thanks," he smiled.
He followed loosely behind, barely keeping the white back in sight as it drew further and further away.
Soon, the kitten herself was gone, and all that was left was a faint sense of familiarity. It went off somewhere to the right, and Ethan lost the trace. Because of that, he had to slow down and find a place to sleep in.
While he could return to his home, he didn't know if it would make him vulnerable to Sylvia. The rules were set to kill her and she would fight in self-defense, but it was never stated if the hunt can go both ways. Maybe it did, so he'll stay alert.
He hid Koneko from her, so he would bet that she hid her own things from him.
He glanced up at the sign rising up in the distance and smiled.
Hotel it is, then.
Sylvia was trotting down the road, finding her way home.
She took out a cellphone and paused, hesitant to turn it on.
Ethan doesn't have a way to track me this way, right?
She slowed and looked around, cautious. With a breath, she powered on the device, waiting on it to load the lock screen. A crash startled her and she heard a tiny mewl and narrowed her eyes, before seeing a kitten rolling off a near empty trash can.
"Nyan~" The innocent cry made her smile as it approached cautiously.
A tiny, scared animal in a cruel world.
Just like her.
Sylvia knelt and it approached, stopping a few feet away, leg lifted and poised, staring at her with large eyes.
"I won't bite," she whispered. The kitten took another step and was soon jumping up, rubbing the length of its body against her outer thigh. She rubbed its head and it pulled away, afraid.
It ran down the sidewalk behind her, but stopped and turned around, eyeing Sylvia carefully.
Sylvia smiled and began walking again, not wanting to stay for too long.
She checked her phone and punched in an address that was close, but not hers. Sylvia saw her home wasn't too far away from where she was now and picked up her pace.
Looking back, she saw the kitten following but stopped when she turned, and couldn't help but smile.
Too cute.
She squatted again, and the kitten slowly approached, rubbing itself against her again before allowing itself to be picked up.
It wasn't big, but it wasn't small, its length went from the tips of her fingers to her elbow and while its height was a little taller than the length of her hand.
She clutched it close to her and scratched its head as it purred. Reaching home without incident, she woke up the feline and placed it on the porch, "You can stay out here if you want."
It looked out onto the yard, the grass overgrown and reaching past the waist, hiding numerous number of threats from view.
It turned around and waltzed in, as if saying I think I'll stay inside.
Sylvia laughed and closed the door behind her as the cat hopped up onto a table and laid down. "You want to know where I sleep so you can come to me if you need anything?"
It rose its head up, blinking twice, swishing its tail back and forth before standing unsteadily and hopping down.
It stuck with Sylvia's pace until she reached her room and made sure the kitten knew. But it seemed to concentrate on the window near her bed, and quickly scrambled forward as if scalded by hot water.
It leapt onto the sill and watched, the hairs on its back and tail raised.
Sylvia felt dread, she should have made sure nobody was following. Now she was going to pay for that mistake.
She peered out the window cautiously, but it seemed the kitten only sensed danger and it didn't seem imminent. It sat there, its tail stiff, watching outside. A tiny guardian of the home.
Sylvia sighed as the feline relaxed, laying its head down on its legs as its tail flicked back and forth.
She found the sight peaceful, the tail swinging like a pendulum, hypnotizing as it went back and forth, back and forth. The moonlight glistened off its fur as it watched.
Or maybe waiting for someone?
Suspicion filled Sylvia's mind and she sat up, and the movement seemed to frighten the cat, its head whipping around before it darted towards the doorway, turning its head around when it stopped.
"You belong to someone?" It waited on something, and Sylvia felt no change in the air.
"Nya?" it mewled.
"Are you a he or she?" It stalked up close, laying down at the side of the bed, looking up at her with those large eyes. "Boy?" Nothing, "Or girl?"
It blinked and sneezed, before looking at her again.
No reaction. Cats didn't speak a human language. Something she expected, but still surprised at the stoic look it gave her, one that was no longer scared.
Ethan waited a long time for Koneko to return, well past midnight was when he began to worry.
She had marked Sylvia a long time ago, as he felt a presence of two feline auras a certain point after checking in, but when an hour passed, it was far too long for "only marking" Sylvia.
The auras vanished and he couldn't help but worry.
He knew Koneko would easily escape if she wanted to, and the fact that she hadn't found him meant she was safe where she was right now.
Still, it worried him.
Maybe she decided to speak to Sylvia after all.
That honestly bothered him more than Koneko being in danger. Because if she didn't reveal herself, she had a chance of being in danger when caught between assassins and Sylvia.
If Koneko did reveal herself, Sylvia would eventually find out Koneko worked with Ethan, after recognizing the Nekoshou, and Koneko will definitely be in danger.
Ethan got out of bed, no point in trying to sleep when he couldn't.
Unsticking his shirt from his back, he grabbed a whetstone and the sword, bringing them to the bathtub inside his room.
He turned up the tap and let the water run, before running the mindless routine ground into him since he remembered.
Grind, grind, rinse, grind.
Again and again until the blade was sharp, grabbing the cloth and mashed together the quantities of ingredients his teacher had taught him for the mixture to clean the blade.
Once he was finished, the blade looked as if it were new.
He split his skin at the tip of his thumb, always feeling comfort from testing the blade that way, and sheathed the blade in the leather scabbard, wrapping a bandage around his thumb, and headed out.
He didn't know how long he had until he failed his request to kill Sylvia, but he would end it tomorrow night.
Sylvia will die before the week ends.