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Blade looked over at Yuki, who seemed to have never seen Riyo like this before. Was he really just that unlucky for this to be the third time he's seen Riyo like this, when one of the guys she traveled with never experienced this? Shaking his head, he kept an eye on the cat demon, thinking once more of what Atticus had said.

Maybe there's a way to reverse this... She doesn't seem to be like this most of the time...

As Riyo stepped towards him, the thief stayed put. He tried to remain as relax as possible, since being tense was the last thing he needed to be if he needed to move quick suddenly. He kept on watching her as she addressed them all and told the story. The shadows of her past were dark and twisted, that was certain. And he couldn't help but feel badly for her, but now wasn't really the time for that. Blade had a feeling that the Riyo before them would not take so lightly to sympathy.

Keeping his hand on his shoulder, he stared right back into her eyes with his own dark red ones. There wasn't a sense of fear or anger in them, but something different.

"When you have nothing in the world, you search for what you're missing. It's not an easy task, it's actually pretty hard, especially if you don't know what it is you're missing exactly. But when you have nothing... what do you have to lose anyway?"

The thief took his hand away from his shoulder, pausing a bit as he spoke.

"Martyr, monster... It doesn't really mean anything. Some people will fear you. Others will not. Some will hate, others will love."

After all... people see me as a good for nothing criminal just for doing things that mean survival for myself.

When Riyo advanced on him, Yuki did not move. He only returned her stare, though it took a bit for him to hold his tongue. That fear that he had seen in her eyes before this entity had taken over, not seconds before, proved that there had to be some of the 'real' Riyo left that they had come to know, if only so much in the past several days. If this demon was speaking the truth, he didn't believe a word of it. Her soul; The innocent half of Riyo was still in there... Somewhere. They just had to find it again, before it was too late.

The beginning of her story was not to be a happy one, Yuki knew it from the moment he saw the dark figures looming over the child. He watched the entire event with a distasteful expression, his understanding for Riyo's frightened attitude and dislike of being left alone was swiftly becoming clear. Even though she had a village, had a parent, she was still completely alone. He pitied her, and his changing expression may have reflected that.

His gaze traveled to the ground with her questions. What would he do, if he had nothing in the world? This would mean, first, that he would have to lose what he had now. His sister, his friends, his home, his village... The first alone would devastate him enough, but to lose everything? Everything...

I would make them suffer... A response that was only formulated in his mind. Whoever took them all from me... I would make them pay. No matter the cost. At the mere thought of it, he grew tense. He could never let it happen, they'd have to lose him first.

Scooting closer to the fire Mitsu began to warm her hands as Neko rummaged through his bag for something to eat. While they were in town he had picked up a few things as well not sure how soon they would meet up with the group again. And to make life a little easier he had bought a cup for Mitsu to drink her tea out of and a small kettle to heat water. He had also bought some dried meats and a new bag to put all this stuff in, because he sure as hell wasn't going to carry it.

"Here," Neko held out an apple for Mitsu to take. There had been an orchard a couple of miles back and who was he to pass up free fruit.

Taking the apple Mitsu seemed to examine it closely as Neko went about peeling his with a knife, carefully working the skin away and eating the exposed fruit. She on the other hand was far to interested in its intense color to begin to eat it.

"Are you not feeling well?" Looking up Mitsu realized Neko had stopped eating his apple and was staring at her with a concerned look in his eyes.

"Uh..no...no I feel alright." Turning the apple in her hands Mitsu focused her attention back to the ground. "I guess I'm just tired."

"Well, tired or not you need to eat something before you sleep." Standing to his feet Neko moved toward Mitsu and took a seat beside her. Taking the apple from her hands he began to peel and slice it for her handing her pieces as he got them. "Here, eat up."

Mitsu had gone a little stiff as Neko sat next to her and only stared awkwardly at the piece of fruit he was offering. Gaze moving from the apple slice, to Neko, back to the apple slice, Mitsu wasn't sure what to do. Neko was acting awfully weird.

"Don't be shy, here," Not waiting for Mitsu to take it Neko held it by her mouth. "Open up." He pressed the apple to her lips and waited but she didn't open her mouth right away. Instead her face turned scarlet as she mechanically opened her mouth allowing Neko to feed her. "There, that wasn't so bad. Do you like it?" He noticed she wasn't chewing and her face had flushed again like she was sick "....are you alright?"

"NO! I..I..I mean yes," Scooting a bit away to put some distance between them Mitsu really wished Hitsu was here. She would know why Neko was acting so weird. Trying to look away Mitsu failed to realize Neko coming up beside her again as he took her face in his hands and pressed his forehead to her's. Mitsu looked like she was doing all she could to avoid screaming as she went rigid her face brightening even more from embarrassment.

"You seem a little warm. Maybe we should go ahead and get some sleep. Rest would do you good," Neko said letting her go and preparing a place for them to sleep for the night. Unsure what to make of everything Mitsu sat in the same spot, in the same position, with the same expression on her face.

Do you -really- know what it is you want?

While he watched her, he noted the two ooze-cats she had summoned to her side. It was those creatures that had literally shredded the one guard a part back at that town's inn, so he knew he couldn't take them too lightly.

Blade glanced over at Yuki as Riyo addressed him, then towards the shadow of the little girl. Narrowing his eyes a bit, he moved over in front of the girl to try and shield her some. Something told him that this silouette had the essence of the Riyo he was more familiar with. It was at least a good sign that she wasn't gone.

"You just said it yourself," he said to the one that appeared to be Riyo, "This isn't what you wanted. So do you truly know what it is you desire?"

Glancing over his shoulder, he looked down at the silouette of the little girl with softened eyes.

"Don't worry... We'll get you back in control... somehow.. Just.. please don't start crying..."

Yuki had finally raised his head to look at Riyo when he'd felt her eyes on him again. His pained expression was replaced with one of irritation, and he gave a brief but audible noise of disapproval. How would she know that he didn't have any idea what he wanted? Oh, he could have voiced his thoughts, but right now he was certain it would do nothing to aid the situation. Her waiting of his answer would have to continue, for as far as he was concerned she wasn't going to get one.

Then, Blade had gotten his attention.

"You just said it yourself. This isn't what you wanted."

Yuki's eyes grew wide, and he stared at the child. It was... Riyo's soul? It had to be, and Blade had figured it out. As Blade put himself at risk in an attempt to shield the young spirit from harm, Yuki stepped closer. Not the smartest of gestures, but he was going to take that risk in order to further protect the better side of Riyo. The real question was... How were they going to make this right?

-----

It was for the best that Hanse had clamped a hand over Hitsu's mouth just as quickly as he'd grabbed her, it had been just in time to muffle out her scream. For a few long seconds, she was terrified, and once Hanse had identified himself some of her tears had already been shed. She'd offered a quick nod in response to his request, and cupped her own hands to her face once he'd released her, hastily rubbing away her fearful tears. "Wh-what are you d-doing here?" She stammered out softly, plopping down on the cold earth to sit. She pulled her knees up to her chest, and wrapped her arms around them. Someone was in here with her, but she was still afraid.

Watching the interation between the evil riyo and the child one, poke started to come to another conclusion. She wondered if this is what people called a "split personality". But now she knew that riyo was still there, somewhere...

She saw yuki and blade get closer to riyo. She had to do the same thing. But before she could, one of the black cat monsters came charging after her. Startled, she jumped forward to meet the cat thing head on by swinging her staff in the air, before thrusting in done at the beast in a stabbing motion.

The argument between the two only made things all the clearer. Whatever had overpowered Riyo as a child hadn't been as welcome as she had tried to make it sound. She'd been taken advantage of, in her time of weakness. Her life had been stolen from her, and all this time she'd been fighting to keep control. Now, she had lost the battle. If they didn't act, this part of Riyo would be lost and they'd be left with... This.

The news that she could do no harm to Riyo's innocent side, as it seemed to be, was a welcome tidbit. It was currently separate from the main body, so he concluded that this dark side could be dealt with one way or another without worry. At least, to a point. The threat on his life fell on deaf ears, he may not have been accustomed to fighting for his life but surely the knowledge and strengths that he had could be his saving grace. As the cat-beasts sought their targets, Yuki advanced on Riyo. If she could be overpowered, he hoped that the beasts would fade. That was, with the assumption that without her control they could not exist.

The others were too close, he didn't want to rely on his magic if it was going to risk putting them in further danger. Instead, he lunged at her. Ducking to try and plow her off her feet with all of his weight striking her middle, with him to land on top of her. Something had to be done, but serious harm was obviously low on his list of attacks. He wanted to limit the damage, after all their Riyo had to have a body to go back to.

After his single attack, it was all over, thanks to Yuki's efforts. Standing up straight, he kept his sword at hand and looked over towards Riyo. Quite frankly, Blade hadn't expected the fight to end so quickly, but he wasn't going to complain.

For now, he listened to the two sides of Riyo speak to one another in silence. His eyes widened slightly as they mentioned what Riyo's mother was going to do to her own daughter. Frowning a bit, he looked towards the child, wondering what she would say.

"Your choices back then are different from the choices you have today. From the sounds of things, you did what you did for the sake of self defense. But no one here is trying to take your life or hurt you for that matter."

For a moment, he glanced over at the one dealing with Yuki before looking back at the sillouette.

"I don't think there's a whole lot we can do against your other half without hurting you too much as well... so you're going to need to find some sort of.. medium with yourself Riyo. And I'm sure everyone here will be more than willing to try and help you reach that point..."