She needed to find him, and she needed to do it soon. She wouldn't accomplish anything aimlessly wandering around the streets of Japan. If she had learned anything from her previous encounters with Choso, it was that he would appear at the most inconvenient times and never when she blatantly looked for him. With that, she made her way back to her apartment in the heart of Kyoto.

Upon arrival, she found her apartment exactly as she had left it. Daggers were left sporadically on the floor, and mounds of papers from her investigation sat on the coffee table alongside endless unfinished cups of various drinks. Asami knew she should start the report for the incident, yet something inside of her told her that she better keep it to herself for now. After all, this had started to turn into more of a game than a job. Or maybe that's what he wanted her to think. Maybe he wanted her to have her guard down so he could kill her in the moment she least expected. Various theories of what he could want from her flooded her mind. This was new; had this been a month ago, she would've been dead. He would not have made the effort. So what has changed? Has he grown a heart, or is he simply bored and needs a new toy to play with? Regardless of what he wanted, she needed to end him for her sake and, of course, for humanity's sake. He was still a curse, and she was still a sorcerer, nothing more, nothing less. So why didn't she feel a stronger urgency? With so much uncertainty surrounding the situation, she tried not to stress herself out with the unknown and take a moment for herself. Seeing as she had just escaped death, a detail she kept forgetting. She made her way around the mess and onto her bed. If only to rest her eyes for a few minutes. Minutes turned into hours, and hours turned into an entire day.

By the time she woke up, the sun was down again, and while the world outside had changed, she had been left untouched. If only it had been that simple. In the corner of her eye, she saw a figure. Frantically, she got up and summoned a dagger. Without a second thought, she focused her energy on the object in her vision and sent the dagger flying. Only to see it fall to the ground, he blocked it with a shot of his blood. Choso

"How the fuck did you get in?" Asami growled, her voice filled with rage.

He looked unamused and quite annoyed, as if she had broken into his home while he slept.

Voice low and flat. "Your door knob is quite ugly; I did you a favor really."

She looked over at her door. The doorknob lay on the floor; it had been cut out. He used his piercing blood technique as a laser. Maybe he was half-human after all.

She sent another dagger flying his way; this one came straight off the floor and into his right foot. He didn't so much as flinch.

"Is this how you say thank you? How unpleasant! I can't say I'm very keen on doing you any favors in the future." He bent down and plucked the dagger from his foot, twirling it in his hand, watching his blood drip onto the wooden floor beneath him.

White rage boiled beneath her skin. How dare he break into her home while she slept, treat her actions as a mere inconvenience, and still demand some sort of sick appreciation?

"I don't owe you anything; had it been up to me, I'd rather die drowning than be saved by you." She began to position herself better for her next move. "Yet here I stand, very much alive and very well because of you. So tell me, Choso, why did you save me? What kind of twisted game are you playing?" Focusing on the dagger directly behind him, she started to intertwine her fingers.

"I wouldn't do that." He warned, and without another beat, hot, red blood came shooting in between her hands, stopping them from fully touching. "You believe me foolish enough to let you near me? I know you better than your other opponents; I may even know you better than you know yourself. So let's say we stop this nonsense and talk." A wicked smile crept up his face.

She responded with two more daggers coming straight for his hands, but intercepted again.

"Fine." He said, dropping the dagger he had in his hand. "If you must make this hard, I'll play along."

She intertwined her fingers. "Dagger technique, transport." Suddenly, she was next to Choso. Asami's transport technique allowed her to take the place of one of her summoned daggers as long as she held her hand. Earlier, she threw those blades, knowing he would stop them; her goal had not been to hurt him. But to wound up next to an exit. Her window would suffice; no one in her complex had to suffer because of a curse. She swiftly broke the glass and escaped, landing on the wet concrete of the alleyway below her apartment. Choso followed closely behind, and a wall of blood rose behind him.

"Convergence": small spheres of blood formed around him.

Asami, not wanting to give him a chance to charge up more spheres, quickly moves towards him, striking him on the abdomen and turning back towards him.

"I never took you for a close-range fighter. I've only ever seen you hide behind those precious daggers of yours." She went to strike him again, but he blocked her fist effortlessly with his forearm. "Though now that I think about it, maybe you're doing this to prove something."

She scoffed, though it didn't come off as cruel as she intended. "I have nothing to prove to an enigma like you." She said before summoning a dagger and slicing his lower right side.

"Ouch." His tone sarcastic, and his face still flat. He clutched his chest and ignored his fresh wound. "You really think of me so lowly? I thought we had something special." A cold smile adorns his face briefly. Before landing a punch on her left shoulder. She stumbled back slightly, but regained her composure. Yet she wasn't quick enough.

"Supernova" Six different spheres attacked her, and she was unable to dodge them. She winced in pain, almost falling to her feet. Choso came at her with a red fist, but she managed to duck in time.

She needed time to recover. "What do you want from me? Why are you keeping me around?" She asked, hoping he wouldn't see right through her plan.

"I was hoping we could have had this conversation in a calmer setting. I did not want to waste any more energy on you than I needed to. But since you must make everything so hard, I'll make you a deal. For every time you manage to touch me, I'll answer one question."

"I'm not foolish enough to make a deal with a curse, no matter the insignificance of it. So why don't you just answer my questions, and I might let you see another day." She needed just a few more minutes, she was almost ready. I'll ask again. "What do you want from me?"

A deep sigh. "You're asking the wrong questions; I don't want anything from you. I take all the things I want, and I don't ask permission." He slowly walked towards her, and for some reason she allowed him to.

His face was now only a whisper away from hers, his dark eyes piercing down at her. His voice is low but affirmative. "Your life will only be taken by me. You are mine to play with, and until I've decided I'm bored with you, I'll go to any lengths to keep you alive." His mouth was now at the cusp of her ear. "So make this easy and stay out of trouble."

She turned her head to say something back, but with a blink of an eye, he was gone. Leaving only a trace of his scent as a reminder of where he stood.