Konosuke moved through the woods with much less cleverness than Ronin, stepping on loose branches and carelessly sloshing through the creeks (getting Toklata soaked in the process).

She felt uncomfortable in his hands, being swung at his side, the way a young girl might carry a rag doll. She felt unsure, too. They had left Ronin, who had obviously been in pain, bleeding on the floor. Konosuke, the obviously cruel man who had caused him this pain, had scooped her up and was now carrying her God knows where to do God knows what to her. To make things worse, said man seemed to regard her as some sort of filthy creature who carried some tropical disease that would cause one's skin to fester, and only wanted to use her as Ronin's weakness.

She kept quiet, still rather rattled from seeing Ronin's skin turn an even paler shade than it had been before Konosuke had appeared holding her, he realized his sword was missing, and he had been shot in each leg. No, the pallid coloring of Ronin's face had occurred when Konosuke turned to leave, grinning ear-to-ear, dangling her in his grip.

Suddenly, her once airborne feet hit the ground. She looked up, into Konosuke's cold, relentless eyes for an explanation, internally shivering at his face. As a reply, he motioned to the ground around them. The two were no longer in the dense forest, but on the well-beaten dirt path that led right into the main part of her small town.

"There's going to be people around, so, unfortunately, I can't dangle you by your wrist anymore. Just smile and act normal. If you try to run away, I'll go right back to that cave and kill Takoda through means of blood loss. Understand?"

She managed a shaky nod, comprehending only the fact that if she tried to be a hero, Ronin would, without a doubt, die. Then, she thought of something else.

"Um, Mister Konosuke?" she asked, tugging at his shirt. "I'm supposed to be in school right now, so if people saw me walking around, and with you, they might get suspicious."

He didn't look too impressed with her revelation, but showed minor concern for his shirt, as he carefully plucked Toklata's hand off of it. "You don't think I haven't thought of this?" he scowled. "People are likely to know you haven't been seen since the night before the last. We're not going to walk right through the town. I know this way is longer, but we'll only run into a few people, so just keep quiet."

As a promise to heed his words, a silent nod was her only reply as she struggled to keep up with his long stride. They only ran into a few other people while they walked, none of which Toklata knew by full names. She wondered where Konosuke was taking her. Did he have some secret hideout? Or did he hang out in caves like Ronin? She hoped not. She was getting tired of sitting on cave floors.

They finally reached their destination just as the sun was setting for the day. Much to Toklata's relief, Konosuke lived in a house, like a normal person. It was small, like a cabin someone from a more northern part of the country would retreat to during winter months, but so was her own home, and it was cozy looking, too.

It was a clean, pale yellow color on the outside with lush, slightly overgrown grass in the lawn, and peeling white trim around the single front window. Toklata almost had to bite her bottom lip just to keep from laughing. It would certainly be hard for the nearby neighbors to believe this house was really the rented spot of a heartless vampire hunter.

That was another thing that added to the seclusion. The nearest houses were on the opposite side of the street, one half-a-mile before Konosuke's home, and the other cabin half-a-mile down the road from it.

Konosuke had unlocked his front door while she was looking around, and shoved her in as soon as she noticed this.

The inside of the house seemed just as feminine as the outside, with delicate baby blue walls and an ocean-colored carpet that matched her eyes. Contrary to Konosuke's hair and dress, it was spotless, with pillows neatly perched on a yellow leather couch and an identical chair and a wooden table against the wall. This room opened up into a kitchen and a bathroom. Leading the opposite way through the house, was a rather notorious looking hallway.

Of course, when Konosuke gripped her now sore wrist and led her somewhere new, it wasn't the cozy kitchen or onto one of the cute furnishings, but down said notorious-looking hallway.

It wasn't as long as one would expect of something so dark and forbidding. He stopped at the first door of two, opening it and standing there. Apparently, he was done with the shoving.

This time he actually kicked her into the room.

Toklata knew there was a reason he had crammed her into a small but pleasant room, instead of a dank basement or a cupboard. This reason soon revealed itself. The door of the room actually locked from the outside.

Slightly pissed, she kicked the door lightly, sending it a nasty look.

"Keep quiet!" Konosuke snapped from somewhere in the living room. Toklata made a face in the general direction of his voice, half-expecting him to burst in and beat her for it even though she knew he couldn't see her.

She could hear Konosuke moving something metal, maybe cooking. She tried to picture the man in an apron, but to no avail. As an afterthought, she wondered how long until Ronin would come, and if Konosuke would feed her in the meantime.

-- -- --

Ronin Takoda was, quite clearly, a broken man.

Konosuke had apparently decided that taking his sword and, in return, giving him two bloody thighs was a fair trade.

It was possible for him to walk, of course, but at no promising pace. Not to mention, the sun was only just setting, and the abandoned rays of light that were left behind after the sun disappeared behind a mountain would surely find it fun to screw with him even more.

He wondered briefly what Konosuke had done with his sword, but brushed that annoyance aside and concentrated on a more pressing matter.

Toklata.

Shinobu Konosuke was, to put it nicely, a heartless, sneaky bastard. Ronin could rattle off a whole list of things Konosuke could do to the girl without actually killing her. It had been cruel enough to use her as a human shield.

Should've just killed them both, he thought angrily, but a mental image of Jaden shook her head at him and waggled her finger, reminding him to be kinder.

Those kinds of thoughts, after all, were what created men like Konosuke in the first place.

Sighing softly, he picked himself up cautiously, wincing and gasping as a bolt of pain shot up his right leg. He crouched back down, reminding himself that he was, in fact, a vampire, and should be able to take this kind of pain, if not ignore it completely.

He should, but he couldn't.

And yet, he absolutely had to.

-- -- --

Toklata lying on the room's uncomfortable bed, staring into the nothingness of the perfect sculpted ceiling, when she heard the door unlock, and Konosuke, looking clean and well groomed, stepped in. She watched him with tired, wary eyes. He shut the door quietly behind him, turning slowly to face her.

He sat on the very end of the bed. Toklata sat up and pulled her knees to her chest, theorizing that decreasing her surface area would also decrease the chance of Konosuke lashing out at her. He stared at her for a few moments, finally saying, "Don't do that. Don't act so damn weak. Lay down if you want; I'm not going to hurt you."

She shook her head and, if possible, pulled closer into herself. Konosuke raised his hand to slap her, but stopped halfway there.

"Listen. I have to go to work—Yes, I have another job, I can't make a living on hunting damn vampires—And you're going to stay here. Alone. Here's the question. What are you going to be doing all night?"

"Nothing," she choked. "I'll go to sleep."

"Well," Konosuke continued, "if you can find some cereal or something, you can eat, if you're hungry. Or if you want to read something…Anyway, you know what'll happen if you try to scheme against me, don't you?"

Again, she nodded.

"And if Takoda somehow manages to find this place before I get back, and that's nearly impossible with his legs the way they are, so don't get your hopes up, then you'll have to keep him here until I get back.

Toklata was considering asking why in the world she would do something as stupid as that, when Konosuke got a thoughtful look in his eyes and, grinning, continued.

"Though I doubt you'd need to tell him to wait up for me. He'll be real pissed, I can guarantee that."

With a nasty chuckle, Konosuke got up of the edge of the bed, ruffled Toklata's hair mockingly, and headed out, not even shutting the door behind him. Toklata didn't release her body from it's own grip until she heard the front door close and lock. She wondered if that door locked from the outside too, but was afraid to go check, just in case Konosuke was waiting right outside to see if she tried to escape.

Suddenly chilled to the bone, she laid back down and burrowed underneath one of the scratchy comforters. It was funny to think that hunting vampires was actually Konosuke's day job.