The last thing Toklata had expected was to wake up alive. Not that she was complaining.

Not only that, but she was completely unscathed, and wrapped in a much more comfortable blanket than she had been the night before.

"Ugh…" She rubbed her eyes sleepily, wondering what time it was. She first checked that Konosuke wasn't going to pop out of nowhere and start ordering her around, and then she analyzed her surroundings.

There was a light on in the room, but it was pitch black outside, with only a sliver of a moon to light it. She also noticed that she wasn't in the same room that she had been in the night before, but a much bigger one, with a huge bed and a cluttered desk in the corner.

She sat up, rubbing her eyes a second time, thinking that Konosuke must be working again. She had thought for sure that he was going to kill her. It did seem like the more practical option for him, to just get rid of her there and then instead of keeping her and giving Ronin something to fight for.

She wondered briefly if she was just flattering herself, did Ronin really care about her at all? For all she knew, he could be hundreds of miles away by now, laughing at the thought of Konosuke tearing her apart.

No, no, no! She told herself. If you want him to come, you've got to have faith in him!

She slid out of the bed and padded softly out of the room, her bare feet barely making a sound. The rest of the house was dark, except for a dim light coming from what she assumed to be the kitchen (she was still unsure where in the house she was exactly, but had a pretty good idea).

Sneaking down the hall on the very tips of her toes, she found the source of the light, not in the kitchen, but in the connected living room. The faint illumination was coming from a dying candle, which had already spilled wax (now dry) all over the coffee table. Slumped in the yellow loveseat was Konosuke, with huge blackish blue circles wrung around his eyes and bits of blonde hair falling into his tired, sallow face. He didn't seem to notice her entrance.

Toklata stood there for a long few moments, trying to figure out what to do, before, unbeknownst to herself, her feet led her to Konosuke's side.

"Didn't you have to go to work?" He failed to reply, just kept staring into the candle flame, so she continued. "Shouldn't you go to bed? You look real tired." She put a hand on his shoulder, but he immediately shrugged it off. "If you don't mind me asking, sir…why didn't you kill me?"

There. That was it. He couldn't ignore that question.

For awhile, he didn't answer, and Toklata thought of just pulling herself back into his comfortable bed and leaving him be, but he finally found the response he was looking for.

"I couldn't."

"W-what? Why not?" That wasn't the answer she had expected.

"I don't know. I just couldn't. You looked completely helpless and innocent and…and I just couldn't stand to hurt you."

Well, the fact that Konosuke actually had a soul just complicated things.

"Go back to sleep girl. You're still feeling the effects of that truth serum in your drink. It can't be good for your body. I guess all you can do is sleep it off."

She nodded, and whispered, "thank you," before quietly slipping back into her own room.

--

"You didn't happen to see a girl, about four and a half feet tall, really messy brown hair and pretty turquoise eyes? Maybe walking by a man…"

"I assume you're looking for Toklata Samson? Huh. Her mother figures she just ran away, but she's been gone for a few days now, and none of us have seen her. I've never seen you around here before. How do you know her?"

Ronin choked while trying to come up with a halfway reasonable answer. After all, he was running around in the dark in a flamboyant black cloak, asking people about a young girl made him seem like a pretty suspicious character, right?

"I…I'm just a friend of hers. Sweet girl. I hope she's okay." I really, really hope she's okay. "Well, thanks anyway."

Ronin kicked childishly at the wood floor of the shop, swearing softly. Asking around wasn't helping, and he didn't have anywhere to stay when the sun came up, which, judging by the clock, would be soon.

"You look awful."

He looked up. The shopkeeper, the woman he had been speaking to, was the one addressing him.

"Have you been up all night asking around about that girl? Because you look it."

Ronin nodded, hoping to get himself some positive sympathy, letting his hair fall into his face. "Yes. I was up all of today looking for her too. I love her, really. She's like a daughter to me." He wondered if tears would help, but reminded himself that he still had some pride. "You wouldn't happen to have anywhere I can stay for a few hours, would you?"

"Of course!"

Ronin smirked internally to himself, but retained his forlorn look on the outside. "Well…I don't have much money…and I don't want to trouble you…"

"Oh, not at all! You poor, poor thing! Worrying over that girl more than her mother does…Oh; my name is Leigh, by the way."

"Thank you. So much. I'll remember it. And I'll pay you back someday." All right. It hadn't been a total lie. He didn't think he'd be forgetting Leigh's good deed anytime soon, but he didn't think he'd be paying for it either. The young woman really had no idea how many lives she might me saving, even if she was losing money.

She'd been easy to charm. Ronin doubted it was the actual eye-batting, heart-melting show he had put on for her, but the fact that he had been searching tirelessly for a child. She didn't seem like a stupid woman.

Part of that opinion might have been because her eyes were the exact same color as Jaden's. Still, they weren't the same shape. They were rounder, and not as mean looking. And Leigh had frizzy red hair. Lots of it.

Ronin blinked and shook his head. There was no way he could be interested in a woman now, with Konosuke taking hostages.

She noticed him looking at her and blushed ever so slightly, turning from him and dashing into a back room. Ronin smirked. Hell, he almost felt like laughing.

Leigh returned several minutes later to find her guest looking rather conceited with himself. His warm golden eyes had narrowed into something that might be compared to a wolf's, and his arms were crossed over his bare chest. She did the same with hers.

"What did you say your name was?"

Her voice was skeptical. Ronin toned down his arrogance a bit, adopting that forlorn look again. "Ronin Takoda. I appreciate your hospitality, Miss Leigh."

"Ronin…is that…"

"It's Japanese. And I know what it means, if you were going to ask." Ouch. That sounded kind of bitter.

Leigh realized she'd touched some sore spot and, silently, she led Ronin up seven rather perilous looking stairs, to his room.

"My room's just down the hall," she said, motioning to a door not too far from his own guest room. "If you need anything—"

"I didn't realize I was intruding so much." Really? It was odd enough that a small shop like this was open this early in the morning, but she lived in it too? And she was letting a complete stranger stay ten feet from her room? She was either very trusting, felt quite a bit of pity for him (the poor, limping man looking for the lost little girl), or was confident that she could get rid of him if he caused trouble.

"Would you like food, or anything?"

"No, but I really need sleep. I hate to ask, but I hope you won't disturb me. I'll be gone by nightfall, I assure you." With that, he shuffled into the room and slammed the door shut behind him, right in Leigh's face. Sitting on a battered bed, he decided to take a look at his legs before the sun rose completely.

Sore and lazy, Ronin simply rolled up his pant legs to get a good look at his thighs. He wished he could've washed his blood-soaked pants as well, but pushed that nagging thought into the cobwebs of his mind. The wounds were a horrible, ugly crimson around the place where the bullets had been precariously pulled out, and that was definitely his first priority at this point. He couldn't do much else with another beautiful day drawing ever nearer.

Meanwhile, Leigh still stood right outside the door, contemplating on whether to throw her guest out or not. He was putting on some sort of false act, she knew that for sure, and he seemed pretty sneaky, too. Just his eyes hinted on that.

Then she decided he was simply a big jerk, and burst into the room.

"How could you just lie about—Oh!"

She saw the reason for his ever-so-slight limp clear as day. In fact, it was pretty difficult to miss his red, battered thighs clashing against the light green of the bedding.

"Your legs, Mr. Takoda! Wh-what happened to them!"

"It's nothing, woman, get lost, or at least call me Ronin." Mr. Takoda made him feel centuries older.

Suddenly, Leigh was right next to him. "Gosh, Ronin, what happened! You look like you got shot in the legs!"

Well, at least she was perceptive.

"I told you, it's nothing. Just a little scratch. I'm fine."

"So all of that limping, the pained looks—they weren't just acts. Oh, now I feel so guilty! I thought you were up to something…just…well, your eyes; they're…so sneaky looking. And I tried not to even think about that scar on your cheek. I'm sorry."

"Yeah, yeah." Considering some of the comments he had heard from Konosuke, he wasn't much offended by Leigh's worries. "Like I said, its no big—dammit, that hurts! What are you doing!"

"Hold still," she growled, poking and prodding at his thighs with what seemed like pointless annoyance at him (he figured that if anyone had a right to look that pissed off right now, it was definitely him).

"It looks infected."

Thanks for the great news, Leigh.

With those green orbs of eyes of hers, she looked into Ronin's.

"Tell me. What happened?"