-Leigh's pov-

Oh, no, Ronin, how could you do that?

That was the one thought that was running through my head. I mean, I didn't want to die either, but Toklata…? The only reason we were in this mess was to come and save her, and now he was just going to sacrifice her? Not only was it cruel, but it was also illogical.

Fortunately, Konosuke only noticed the former. Instead of shooting Toklata as promised, he chucked the gun at Ronin's head, which hit him with painful accuracy, right on the left side of his face.

"You're disgusting!" he snarled at Ronin. There was a gash on his forehead where the gun had hit, but he didn't move, calmly letting the blood roll down his face. "You would destroy a child's life so that you could live your pathetic life!"

Toklata was paralyzed where she stood, her right hand clutching her left (hard enough to make it turn bright red) to her chest, her eyes huge. I guessed that it wasn't really the thought of dying that had her plastered to that tree trunk, but rather the thought of Ronin sacrificing her so mindlessly, not even taking a good five minutes to consider the decision.

"Don't do it, Ronin!" I called. "It's not worth it!"

"Will you shut up!" he snapped back, turning towards me. His eyes weren't as angry as his voice had suggested, and they sent a clear message; something that said he knew exactly what he was doing.

I looked back over towards Toklata, who hadn't caught Ronin's apparent control over the situation. Huge tears were rolling freely down her cheeks, but she still hadn't moved from that spot.

I heard the scratching of metal and whipped around so I could see Konosuke and Ronin clearly. The former had switched to offense, and had tried to take off Ronin's arm with a sword half the length of the vampire's. Ronin had countered, but he was now in what looked to be a hopeless position—his body turned to a painful degree, his sword behind his back, single-handedly holding off Konosuke's.

"I'll kill you!" he snarled, pulling back the short sword and stabbing Ronin again in his still-bleeding side, but deeper in this time. I didn't know really what difference his words meant; I had figured he was out to kill Ronin all along. Maybe he was planning to do it more painfully now.

Ronin hunched over, using his sword for support. The wound was apparently a lot worse than it looked. "Are you saying…that you wouldn't kill Toklata?" he panted, looking at the ground.

"I won't! I wouldn't! I could never take a human child's life, especially not the life of a child such as her!"

Ronin looked up abruptly, his eyes shining and a smirk plastered on his face. "Exactly."

Next thing I knew, Konosuke was on his knees, retching up blood.

--

-Ronin's pov-
I hit him hard in the stomach, but with the dull side of my sword. No mercy meant no immediate death. He needed to feel every little bit of pain I shoved upon him. He was on his knees now, choking.

I breathed a sigh of relief—literally letting out a huge breath of air (which puzzled Leigh). My plan had worked, thank the gods. It hadn't really been too cunning, now that I think about it, but it had worked. The gentleness Konosuke had showed Toklata, as if she were his little sister, just before my decision had to be made, that was my inspiration. I guessed that he wouldn't be able to bring himself to kill her, and it was a damn lucky guess. I didn't have a doubt in my mind that he would have shot Leigh; even after learning she had no idea what she was really involved in. There was just something in that look he had given her earlier. So Toklata had been the only one with the slightest chance of salvation.

I glanced at Toklata while I had the time. Her eyes were still huge, even after realizing the probability of her death was close to zero, but she was no longer cutting off the circulation of her left hand. Those eyes…they weren't as calming when they were round and terror-struck like that. I wanted to go comfort her, but I knew that I couldn't; that'd leave the both of us vulnerable, and Leigh too.

Konosuke attacked and I countered, turning around with a side slash. This battle was heading in a brighter direction now. This kind of didn't make sense, since the sun was setting, but that was a good thing for me.

Turning on my heel, I swung again. It was a smooth, flawless movement, and I was starting to feel a bit more like myself. This time, I got Konosuke in the back. Not too honorable, but I hadn't done it deliberately.

More myself or not, I still hated this blind fighting that we were doing. I could barely see his moves and he could barely see mine. What was wrong with us? Damn!

Suddenly severely pissed with the lack of action, a turned and slashed repeatedly with blows that were fairly easy to block, just to get things moving along. The constant sound of clashing metal was somehow reassuring. I managed a few cuts, but nothing too serious, before Konosuke switched with amazing speed from defense to offense with a thrusting attack. To dodge, I ducked under his sword (and with my height, that's quite a feat). After, I jumped and brought my sword down hard. I was attempting to get the top of his shoulder, but got more of the side, again with the dull side of the blade.

Well, we were getting somewhere.

--

-Leigh's pov-

Yep, I was right. He did fight better with a sword. Good thing too. I still couldn't quite figure out what was going on, but Ronin definitely had the upper hand now. His smirk made it that obvious, if not Konosuke's sorry condition.

(Honestly, they were both pretty bad. Some bruises from their earlier punches were starting to show. Ronin's perfect black hair was plastered to his forehead with blood, whether or not it was his own, and even in his dark pants, you could see an alarming amount of blood had soaked into them. Konosuke was also lined in black, blue, and crimson.)

Ronin wasn't drawing any blood, though. It seemed more like he was hitting him with a stick than a sword. But it was effective, so I didn't complain.

I really didn't want to see Ronin kill the guy. Not that I really wanted to spare Konosuke, I just didn't want to admit to myself that Ronin was a murderer. I thought about covering my eyes, but that seemed somehow immature and weak. Maybe I'd have the impulse to run over to Toklata and cover her eyes, while tactfully shielding my vision on her shoulder. I just got so squeamish around blood—and that whole Ronin being a vampire thing was so ironic it just made me wish for something to explode. Preferably Ronin himself…which seems mean, but really it's not.

Okay, yeah, it is.

I heard more clashing of metal. Somehow, it seemed melodious. It meant someone had attacked and then their victim had managed to block. There wasn't a lot of what one would expect—the sound of metal sliding though skin and bone, for example.

I saw Ronin jump into the air for the second time that day and come down just as before, his blade landing on the exact same place on Konosuke's right shoulder. Ouch. That was an attack I definitely wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of.

Konosuke dropped his sword, and his right arm hung limply by his side. Now I got what Ronin was aiming for. The battle was starting to drag on with all the attacking and blocking. But now, Konosuke's right arm was useless, his shoulder probably dislocated or worse with the force Ronin had put behind the attack.

Ronin allowed him to pick up his sword with his left hand and take a swing. But it was just like trying to write with the opposite hand—sloppy and inaccurate, and Ronin caught the blade with three fingers. Then, the vampire kicked Konosuke right in the gut, sending him against a tree, and his short sword in an entirely different direction.

Too bad we all forgot about all those other sharp things that he was carrying.

He pulled one from off his back, a huge thing, maybe as tall as me, but with only his unsteady left hand to use it with, he didn't have a chance of hitting the ever-dodging Ronin. He soon realized this, and dropped the sword at his side, focusing more energy on glaring spitefully up at the vampire, who had sauntered his way over to the tree and was now giving him an almost stuck-up look of triumph.

"Funny, doesn't the term 'Vampire Hunter' imply that I'm the prey?" he sneered. His voice wasn't humorous at all, but icy. Not just icy—it was…shiver-worthy.

Konosuke spit at him, just another thing for Ronin to dodge gracefully. "Bastard. Bloodsucking murderer. Go to hell."

"You first," Ronin sneered, and raised his sword.

Okay, covering-of-the-eyes time. I started towards Toklata, but she was already heading in the opposite direction.

"Wait!" she cried, throwing herself in front of Konosuke, arms spread. Ronin looked down at her with something that one would never expect on his face—pure, undisguised surprise. I'm sure my expression was a mirror of his own, as well as Konosuke's.

"Ronin, if you kill him, that makes you worse than he is! That makes you everything that he's called you, all those mean things that aren't true! But if you kill him, they will be true!"

It occurred to me that Toklata had seemed simple and soft-spoken, but, boy, did she know how to get a point across. And it made sense too. Like she'd memorized lines from a play.

She continued in a much softer voice. "He'll win. He'll be the one who was right. If you wanna kill him, you've gotta kill me too."

Ronin still seemed confused, but lowered his sword and sighed. "You wouldn't understand this. Get lost. I'm not forcing you to watch it." She stayed rooted to that spot.

Left-handed or not, a target so close and so off-guard, so suddenly unaware and gentle is very hard to miss. The whole thing happened in what seemed like slow-motion. Konosuke grabbed the huge sword with his left hand and pulled it back, finally stabbing it into the soft flesh of Ronin's belly.

But it went through Toklata's chest first.