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Despite her eyes being clenched shut so tightly, tears started to leak through. Mitsu was quick to turn her head toward the pillow to rid any evidence of them though keeping her voice from showing the hurt was difficult. She had hoped perhaps she was wrong, maybe it had been a mistake. Maybe Shun had mixed the tea by accident. If he had told her so she would have believed him but he had given her the truth. The painful and numbing truth. Real...it had been real.

The next question was a single word though the difficulty that it took to say it would have disproved its simplicity. "Why?" It came as barely a whisper, Mitsu was afraid to speak up afraid she would do any number of things. Yell, scream, cry out, break down. Any and all were possible.

"Am I just in the way? Am I just a problem you feel you have to keep tucked away in your room to keep me out of trouble?"

Of course she didn't understand, he had kept everything from her until the last minute and had still avoided telling her the truth. The truth which he was hinting at now.

Mitsu's eyes snapped open in alarm, the words Shun had just spoken sinking in. "Track....my movements?" What did that mean? What did that truly mean? Fear started to grip her as she forced herself to turn back toward him. "Why would you need to track my movements?" It was like the emotion had been drained out of her voice.

Now Mitsu was even more lost than before, the color draining from her face. She had been next on the list? She had been his assignment? At that moment Mitsu wasn't certain if she was supposed to be sad he had betrayed her or grateful he had drugged her and left her in his room. Should she be frighten or relieved? Her inward battle played across her face, her claws digging into the sheets until she managed to poke holes through them.

"Why do you think the victims were random?" Her voice was small now, nothing but a scareling huddled on his bed seeking answers to questions better left unexplored.

"Hunters..." Mitsu whispered the word as if speaking it too loudly would summon them here. Her mind was already piecing together what this meant, what it meant for her. Conflicting emotions were still welling up to the point Mitsu wanted to curl up in a ball and whimper. Instead she sat up drawing her knees to her chest. No, this was no time to play weak and helpless. This was why Shun had left her in his room. He didn't think she could protect herself. Hadn't she been working on this? Wasn't it what all the training was for? Why she pushed herself passed her limits some days striving to be better. It was because of them.

When she spoke next Mitsu willed her voice to be calm, begging her vocal cords to cooperate and not waver. She was scared beyond measure but she didn't feel she could show it. Not to Shun. Not now. She needed to put her brave face on and move passed it because something needed to be done.

"Will they be coming after me?" She had tried too hard for calm and ended up in the realm of emotionless with her voice. Oh well, that would work for now. At least it was better than sounding like she was on the brink of hysteria which was what she felt. Because there was one of two possibilities. Shun had complied with his orders and given them her schedule certain because he was certain he could handle the situation or B gave them a fake schedule and in that case he would soon be in trouble when they found out it was false.

"The....horseman?" Hadn't they had the horseman before? Twice? Mitsu was perplexed even as Shun said they wouldn't have come after her anyway, even if the change in plans hadn't been made.

When he tossed the folded papers out over the bed Mitsu tentatively reached for them. Bringing them up to reading level she unfolded them immediately going into detective mode as she often had to when reading anything Shun wrote. It was easy to see the pattern though, none of this was remotely close to what she did in a normal day.

Her eyes finally softened knowing the risk Shun had been willing to take, her hands gently folding the papers back up before setting them aside. She didn't utter another word as she moved closer to her reaper, her arms wrapping around his shoulders from behind. Her head came to rest against the side of his neck as she sat there, the act alone evidence of her forgiveness.

"You should have told me..." Her words were gentle now and not accusing. It was easier to understand his motives when she saw the whole picture.

Mitsu tried to make sense of why they would pay triple but nothing really came to mind other than the fact that the horsemen were...different. Would the Hunters use them against the rest of them? Did it have something to do with that day they left in the forest? The day with the fire?

"I realize that....now." Mitsu said softly, nuzzling into the side of Shun's neck. "I would never think of you as a threat but not telling me, keeping this from me, I feel like you don't trust me." She wasn't being completely unreasonable was she? The last thing Mitsu wanted was an air of mistrust between them.

The lycan could see the doubt that had started to grow within her reaper's mind, trying to reassure him with a light touch of her lips to his cheek. "Its because you aren't as cold as you think." It was easier than taking the 'you care' route. While yes, he cared about her and a few others his motives were iffy beyond that. It was a start though.

"You know what we need to do though...right?" She asked, tilting her head trying to get a better look at his face. Mitsu truly hoped he wouldn't fight her on this. If anything she could tell this was far too big for either of them to handle alone and continuing with this assignment wasn't plausible. At least she was pretty certain it wasn't. It was bad enough knowing people were being captured for ransom or revenge but this was a different level. "We need to get others involved. We need help."

"W...well I don't know if giving me tea to knock me out for a couple of hours was the right answer...and I hope you never do it again," She looked at him pointedly when she said that. "But you were doing what you could to protect me." Mitsu said it in a way of understanding. Would she had done something similar? She really wasn't sure. Mitsu wasn't nearly that clever.

"No, no it most certainly doesn't make you weak." Mitsu said this with conviction believing it with every fiber of her being. "It takes a greater strength to question things and even more than that to do something rather than blindly following orders." She needed to get him on track and make him understand.

"Shun.....if for no other reason than because it is your family we need outside help. I won't let you do anything alone but we are not an army. Besides this isn't just others of our kind...its Hunters." The word was whispered again in a hushed voice. She really was paranoid it was lure them in. "If they keep taking us one by one...no one is going to be safe." She was mentally begging that he would understand. The lycan didn't want to see him go through with this. "If not the staff of the school what about Seeds?"

Now Mitsu wanted to scream. He was going to keep fighting and fighting. He usually saw things so easily but why couldn't he see this one HUGE detail. "Shun...please. I know its outside your norm but this is just...its far too much to handle alone. Besides everyone already is at stake by letting this continue. The more people we have to help the better chances we have. This is why wolves form a pack, there is safety in numbers and they can work in a team. We are part of a pack and we need to let our other pack members know of the potential danger." Unless you plan to give them all tea to keep them out of the way, she thought. Okay, she was still a little miffed about the tea but she was doing her best to keep it under reign. Besides she was hoping to appeal to him with pack logic and throwing her frustration around wasn't going to help.


At that moment Shun would find his phone alerting him of a text. Who would be texting him?