Tsukihime is the property of Type-Moon.

"A Day In The Life."

A faint chilly breeze brushed Hisui's lips and cheeks as she headed out that morning. Locking up the small gate behind her with fumbling fingers was a chore due to the thick gloves she had donned before leaving. Half melted slush splashed onto her coated arms as she struggled with the iron gate, but she was finally able to close and properly lock the black gate.

Hisui started walking away, glancing once last time back at her house through the bars on her one story home.

The dark interior glanced back at her from the windows.

Hisui decided she'd have to shovel the snow off the roof by tomorrow. While she didn't want to risk having it leak through the roof again this year, the redhead wished sometimes that she could get away with not having to do it.

Her left shoulder already ached at the thought of the self tasked errand.

Hisui sighed and started walking to the marketplace, switching the cloth bag she had in her left hand to her right hand as she descended the hill. Just like always, she felt an intense sensation on her back as she went to do her daily chores.

She wondered how many people from the mansion were following her today?

A surreptitious glance behind her at one point revealed at least one person, but she knew that the mansion didn't really celebrate the holidays. That one tail was probably closer to three or four in reality.

No one on the mansion's staff would be taking a day off today, even if it was a holiday. That aspect of things hadn't really changed with the transfer of responsibility; Miss Tohno hadn't been very big on holidays in the final few years.

However, unlike the past, Hisui bet that the ones that were working were only doing so very reluctantly. There was no love lost between the new head and the staff he was basically lording over these days.

"Good morning, Miss Tohno!" A cheerful voice bubbled.

The red haired woman was shaken out of her reverie. Her feet had carried her the rest of the way to the market as she had mused on things half heartedly. Shaking off the rest of her contemplative mood, Hisui glanced at the owner of the store with a faint smile.

"Good morning."

As the forty year old woman started prattling on about the neighborhood gossip, Hisui slipped back into a contemplative mood. She silently gazed at the local gossip as she drew closer to the counter, nodding wherever was appropriate.

It still felt odd for Hisui to have been granted that last name.

Still, it wasn't her place to question other's decisions. Hers was a life of acceptance, from birth until death.

This was just another thing to get used to.

- Scene Break -

"Please come back soon!" The spinster waved at Hisui as she left the door. The hint of desperate loneliness in the shop had only gotten more profound when the woman's most recent worker had quit the other day.

Hisui silently nodded. She wondered how few customers frequented the store, especially when the open look of gratitude briefly appeared on the shop owner's face.

Probably not enough.

Hisui clutched her purchases to her chest, the cloth bag with her week's supply of groceries swaying slightly as she began to head to the bus stop. Her docile expression gained a hint of annoyance as she saw the regular vagabonds that lingered around the stop.

Still, her inclination was not to shake the boat. Even as she felt the teenager's gazes on the her bare hands and face, Hisui couldn't help but feel awkward. A slight hint of nausea bubbled up in her stomache.

Hisui only she had been able to wrap a scarf around her face. Another layer of clothing over her long sleeved shirt and jeans would have gone a long way to let relax.

Come to think of it, didn't her husband have a spare?

She could always trouble him when she got home.

- Scene Break -

"I gotta admit, she is beautiful." One of a pair of college students spoke up. Towards the front of the bus, the red haired woman the two had been discretely eying got off. "I have to admit that your tastes are better than mine." He grudgingly allowed, slipping some cash to his friend.

The foreigner with him grinned.

"No, I don't think she'd accept it." He replied, his victory tainted with a bit of bitterness. He turned in his seat slightly, prodding his friend into doing that as well. "I've seen the type before."

"Huh?"

As the bus began to pull away, the pair saw the red haired woman began her lonely climb up the hill towards a dark mansion.

"Looks like she wants to withdraw from everything."

- Scene Break -

The sidehouse of the Tohno mansion, which Hisui and Shiki had done their best to repair in his final years, greeted Hisui's weary eyes.

"I'm home." Hisui softly called out as she walked into the entrance hall, merely reaching forwards to open it. There was no need for the lock to be set, and Hisui really didn't mind if someone from the branch families did skulk around when she wasn't at home.

Of course no one answered her, but the former maid had manners drilled into her by the staff which used to tend the vast grounds of the land she had inherited from Lady Akiha.

And her husband.

The cold house dulled Hisui's anxieties.

"Welcome home." She muttered to herself.

No matter who she lost, she'd always have her memories.