Ronin had a dilemma. A big dilemma.

He had no idea where Konosuke was hiding out.

Sighing, he looked towards the east, checking that the sun wasn't going to poke up anytime soon. Blindly limping around wasn't helping his condition or helping him get to Toklata, so he was pretty much at a loss. Not to mention how completely vulnerable he felt without his beloved katana (it had, in fact, belonged to Jaden at one point), even though he didn't need it to protect himself anyway (his nails also proved effective in this area).

To keep himself occupied while he searched places in the woods that Konosuke could be hiding in, he began naming off ways to kill the insufferable hunter.

Lynching. Torture. Strangulation. Suffocation…um…what else? Boil him alive? That one's good…or maybe I'll take him to Vampire Mountain and sick the princes on him? No, it'd be more satisfying to do it myself. Not in front of Toklata, of course. At her age, seeing something like that can't be a healthy thing…

He stopped to consider this. If it wasn't healthy for someone her age, it certainly couldn't be good for anyone at all. The whole idea was very confusing, and honestly, Ronin had preferred it when his conscience had been more or less absent.

Cursing his emotions for what must have been the hundredth time that night, he continued trudging along, wincing with each step.

He had dug the bullets out of his upper thighs with his nails, washed out the wounds, and bandaged them well, but his legs still hurt like hell. In the process, he'd practically torn them apart, and even through the bandages, blood was soaking into his pants.

He had noted the general direction Konosuke had taken off in earlier, and had headed that way, but was yet to pick up any signs of Toklata or Konosuke. Not even a slight scent. If possible, this put him in an even nastier mood.

--

Toklata also found herself entertaining a repeating schedule. Since she'd first fallen asleep, she had woken back up more times than she had bothered to count. And each time this happened, she would find herself bolt upright in her borrowed bed, her ears detecting every little creak and groan the house could offer.

She wondered whether she was actually afraid of the things that lived in the closets and under the beds of the house, or whether she was afraid of the man who resided there. She could just see him coming home frustrated from work and taking his anger out on the closest thing, which would most likely end up being her. That seemed like a very Konosuke thing to do.

Toklata's stomach let out a low groan, reminding her that she hadn't eaten in a day or more. She recalled Konosuke saying that she was welcome to make herself something, but wasn't sure of the time and didn't want to be awake when he came back from wherever he was.

Unfortunately, her stomach refused to let her fall asleep until it had something in it, so she grudgingly swung her feet over the edge of the bed, pulled open the door, and padded down the dark hallway. For such a tidy house, it certainly was creepy. It was creepy tidy. Like how dark chocolate turned sickly sweet after you'd eaten too much of it.

She ran her hands over the walls on either side of her, searching for a light switch, or a lamp, or something that might help her find out exactly where she was going at this point. She was careful with her feet, careful to be completely soundless. Suddenly, the walls ended, and she stumbled into what must have been that spotless den.

After regaining her footing, Toklata reached towards another wall and managed to find a light switch, flicking it on. It took her eyes a long few moments to adjust to the light, but once they did, she confirmed that she was, in fact, still in Konosuke's cabin-thing, and not in some horrible beast's belly.

Then she realized that she probably would have been more comfortable in some horrible beast's belly.

Brushing off lots of other sarcastic comments that she could tell the air around her, she tiptoed across the room, into the kitchen, quickly swiping an apple off the middle of the table. She stood for a few seconds, then dashed back into the living room, thinking the kitchen was, like most of the other rooms, very creepy, especially with only the light from the other room pouring into it.

This time she got a good look at the place, and noticed a small, dusty bookshelf in the corner. Recalling another one of Konosuke's offers, she sneaked over to it, apple in hand.

Konosuke had done quite well making it look like a perfectly normal man resided in the house. There was only an old, ragged vampire book here and there. The majority of the three shelves were covered in books about economics and domestic animals. She pulled one about hamsters off the shelf and dashed back to her room, not forgetting to turn the den's light off first.

Toklata pounced onto the bed, under the covers, reaching only her hand out to turn the lamp on the bedside table on. It took her a while to fumble with the switch, but she finally got the illumination she wanted after figuring out she needed to twist it, not push it in.

Konosuke returned several hours later to find her fast asleep, a book in one hand and a half-eaten apple in the other.

--

"You didn't sleep well?"

"EEP! M-mister Konosuke! You scared me!" Toklata, who had sat up in her bed drowsily only moments before, was now completely awake, and unhappily aware the Konosuke was within two feet of her. She began to stumble through her emotions and answer his question, the words tumbling out of her mouth at an awful speed. "UmacctuallyIsleptokayIguessafterIgotallsettledandstuffandIgothungryandIpickedupthisbookabouthamstersI'veneverhadapetbeforebutIthinkI'dlikeonebecausetheyjustlookreallywarmandfuzzyand—"

Konosuke clapped a hand over her mouth, a little more roughly than necessary. "Shut up. Honestly, I couldn't care less how well you slept. I've got things for you to do, so get your vampire-loving ass out of bed and meet me outside in five minutes."

Toklata blinked as Konosuke left, startled at his outright hatred for her after he had at least seemed a bit kinder the night before. Maybe that was because he was going somewhere else, though, and he wouldn't have to put up with her. Sighing, she pulled herself out of the bed and drug herself into the blinding morning sunlight.

--

Ronin found that he wasn't the least bit sleepy when the sun poked up, despite his lack of sleep over the past few days. His head was bubbling with thoughts and memories. Not of Toklata or Konosuke, but of Jaden.

He remembered how her sly, narrow green eyes were a perfect compliment to her personality. She'd been incredibly clever, and had always known when he was up to something. Her hair was another one of her assets, black as midnight and even when tied back it was long enough to make a noose out of.

Ronin recalled not only Jaden's foxlike looks, but her entire attitude as well. In addition to her cleverness, she was strict, and sometimes even downright nasty to others. But boy, had she taught him a lot.

He blinked, coming slightly out of his daze, reminding himself that she had been gone for well over fifty years, and that reminiscing would only slow him down. He closed his eyes and tried to will himself to get some sleep, it would be good for his legs and the rest of his body as well.

Then it hit him.

Jaden had been gone for more than half a century. Konosuke had killed her. He must have been in his late twenties back then and now…now, he still didn't look a day over fourty.

There was no way in hell Konosuke could be a pure human.