~1769~

Winter was upon the isles of Japan. Some would say it was rather fitting, he arrived in he winter. Owen stayed for a while, trying to help rebuild, telling himself that's what she would have wanted. But he was just going through the motions, doing just enough to keep active, to stay alive. But he was basically the walking dead, feeling so hollow.

The only time he actually seemed alive was when he was training, and when he was working on the headstone. And he worked on that headstone more than anything else, because if he was ever going to do something perfect this was going to be it. And he wasn't going to leave until it was. It took months, having had to learn how to carve into stone as he went. But finally it was done. A few villagers helped him put it up after Naoto explained it was a custom from where he was from. Now on this day he kneeled in front of it, ignoring the bite of the cold, just touching the rough texture of the stone. His eyes never leaving the two words painstakingly carved into it.

Himiko McCallister.

Tearing himself away from it he walked away. He passed the house, the old hut Naoto gave him to stay in when he first arrived. Something he rebuilt into something more livable. Twice, they were going to need the extra room after they were married. Without meaning too he looked at the door and saw her there smiling in his memory. He locked his eyes forward and kept going. Passing through what was left of the village's market he saw her just about everywhere except the ground where he adverted his gaze. Soon he was on the road he first walked when he arrived, where he first set his eyes on her. Here he paused and looked back, seeing her as he first saw her. Feeling the sadness threatening to overtake him again he kept on for the docks.

Finding the boat he charted to take him back to the main island wasn't back yet he found a place to sit and ignored everybody. Waiting he felt the buzz, survival instinct the only thing causing his hand to go for his sword and his gaze to look over the crowd. Spotting Naoto in the crowd, he turned back toward the sea. The monk said nothing as he walked up next to him, staring out at sea as well. Before long Naoto stated, "You are leaving."

"There's nothing for me here," Owen told him.

"Of course," Naoto responded. "You have no friends that you have made during your stay here. No peers. No connections what so ever."

On some level Owen realized what he was trying to do. Reminding him that he did have connections here. That he had people here, reasons to stay. Still he said, "She's out there."

"That she is," Naoto agreed. "She also has quite the lead by now. Especially since she had the time to change her clothing after it happened." He shook his head sadly, "If only I remembered about those caves sooner." The caves in question were a series of caverns under he cliff the woman dropped off of those months ago. And at least one entrance under water, discovered the day after the attack as Naoto and others tried to figure out how she disappeared so quickly, as well as the local armor and sword she left. Seeing how nobody saw a naked foreign woman meant she had yet another disguise waiting inside.

"What done is done," Owen said. Naoto put a hand on his shoulder, Owen didn't shrug it off as he's done in the recent past.

"Where would you begin?"

"She would have headed for the main island first, as soon as possible," Owen told him, having thought about this for the past couple of months. When he allowed himself to think about this. "People here would have noticed her no matter how she disguised herself before too long. Or we would have sensed her. From there I don't know yet. But I will track her down to the ends of the Earth if I have too."

"Even if it costs you your life?"

"As long as she dies first."

Naoto was quiet for a few moments, absorbing that. "Vengeance is a slippery path Little Immortal. It can twist your soul until you become something you were never meant to be."

"Are you going to tell me Himiko would sadden if that happens to me?", Owen demanded.

"Why should I tell you something you already know?", the older immortal told him. "Although people here would be saddened as well." Now Owen looked at him, seeing the well hidden concern in his face.

"I'll try to watch the path that I'm on," he promised him.

"That is all I ask." Naoto gaze went from him back to the sea. "I may be mistaken but I believe your ship is about to make dock." Owen looked to see the vessel as well. Getting off his seat he gathered his bag. "Watch your head Little Immortal," Naoto told him.

"You as well sempai," Owen grasped his wrist then pulled the older immortal into a quick hug before turning toward the ship. Naoto turned to walk away.

~1951~

Naoto turned from his path as several other monks tried to get his attention. One in particular seem particularly agitated as he insisted that he follow them. With war taking place on the main continent this one was more skittish than he usually was and was quick to agitate. Even more so after he pointed out the cause of his distress, a lone American soldier praying at the temple. "There, do you see?"

Naoto calmly said, "I see a man praying, nothing more."

"That soldier is mocking our faith," he told him.

"That one would not do so," Naoto said as he walked away from the group and toward the man. "Especially today of all days." They watched as he walked over to the man and say something to him. They were all struck speechless as the American soldier stood up and took his hand that he turned into an embrace.

Later they walked a small path in the monastery that Naoto often traveled. Both of them ignored the other monks that diverted their path to avoid them, not all of them but a few did. Naoto broke the silence, "You seem well Little Immortal, if not a little tired looking."

"It's only my third major war in a little over thirty years," Owen responded. "Why would I look tired? I hear you've been here for a while."

"Yes," Naoto answered as he gestured toward a bench on the path. "It is a little different than the little temple I used to preside over when we first met. But not quite as comfortable." They both sat on the bench and just looked at the sky. Naoto was silently relieved that Owen appeared to be more or less the same. When he first left the island part of him was still afraid that he would have taken the darker path vengeance often demanded. "Have you been back to the island?"

He looked down at the ground, "No. I'm afraid that if I did Himiko's headstone wouldn't be there anymore."

"It is," he told him. "In fact a local legend has grown around it and the circumstances of her death."

In that Owen had to smile a bit, "At least she's remembered in some way." Then his expression hardened a bit, "She's still out there."

"Neither of us have seen her in two hundred years. Perhaps she is already dead."

"Is that what you tell yourself?", Owen asked him.

"I will not lie and say don't occasionally feel my blood boil when I see someone who looks like her. But I also know Himiko wouldn't want either of us to dwell on this to the point of obsession."

"I know," he said softly. "It just hurts, even after all these years.

"And it always will," Naoto said. "At least in a person who hasn't forgotten their humanity. Pray you never lose that feeling." Owen looked at him funny.

"Have you? Is that why your here?"

"I will admit I felt momentarily lost before I joined this particular community. What I lost I m not sure of but I'm sure I'll find it with some meditation and reflection. What of you Owen. You seemed lost when you left, almost as lost as you arrived. Have you found something, or perhaps someone?"

The younger immortal looked down again as he started to blush. "I might have, I don't know. She's one of us so there's that. But she's... something else."

"Does this someone have a name?"

"Natalya," he said with a bit of a smile on his face, one similar to the one when he was around Himiko, or spoke about Deborah. Naoto nodded, pleased in this particular development.

"You must tell me of this Natalya someday."

"Well I don't have to start back to base until tomorrow," Owen told him. "And I would be honored to share a meal with you one more time."

"The honor would be mine Little Immortal."

~Now~

Owen put the hunt on hold, just for today. He waited over two hundred years for her to turn back up again but there was no way he was going to pass over this. In a local church he lighted a candle for Himiko's birthday then took a seat in a pew. Not exactly the same religion that she practiced but there wasn't a Japanese temple close to his current hunting ground. And he didn't lie to himself because he was on a hunt, for the bitch who killed her.

After a few minutes he felt the buzz and looked out of the corner of his eye as Susan sat next to him. She crossed herself a bit and said a quick prayer herself. when she was done she looked back up, "Natalya said you would be here."

"I'm only in one of these twice a year."

"The hunt for the thief went cold a few weeks ago," she said mainly to make conversation. "Nobody making any claims that I heard of so he might have went into hiding."

"Or maybe finally he smartened up."

"There's always that too." She looked thoughtful for a bit, "I know I told you this when it first happened but I am sorry I tried to make you leave her. I was in a bad place at the time, although that's no excuse."

"For a while I understood what you were talking about back then," Owen told her. "I probably would have agreed with you."

"And we both would have been wrong."

"And if I did leave maybe she would have lived a longer life."

"And a very lonely one in the way you and Naoto described her when you first arrived on the island. What if don't count in this life Owen, doesn't matter if you're immortal or not. It just means we have to deal with the consequences longer. Be honest Owen would have changed anything? Would you have left her when I wanted you to."

He sat there quietly as he thought it over, "Like I told you then, you'd have to kill me first."

"Then you made the right choice all those years ago." She said another quick prayer before standing up, "I know you'll be here for most of the day, but if you want to meet up later for a late dinner I wouldn't complain. I took a couple of days off from work so if you need to talk about things I'll be free."

"I'd like that," Owen told her. "There a small restaurant a couple of miles from here, a mom and pop type of place. I'll give you a call and met you there later."

"Sounds like a plan to me," she smiled. "I'd say date but Natalya might find out and we don't want a jealous Natalya after both our heads," she joked. Owen smiled back and returned his attention to the alter as she left. He could hear Naoto in his memory saying he didn't have to carry this burden alone, maybe he was right. All he knew things wouldn't be right until that woman was dead.

He pushed that thought out of his mind. Today of all days he didn't want to waste time thinking about her... or her daughter.