When I get to bed however, I only let myself doze lightly. As expected, the sound of footsteps outside and whispered voices comes as the night progresses. I don’t bother looking out the window, instead just going straight to the living room and hiding myself behind the door.

“Probably took advantage of the circumstances. Besides, did you see that wad of cash he had? Dude’s loaded! We’re gonna strike it rich!” A familiar voice comes before long.

“It’s deadbolted. That’s a problem. These guys sure are cautious!” The voice of the lockpicker sounds annoyed as he fumbles getting the credit card into the lock. A vast amount of annoyance hits me as well in that moment. When the two of them manage to get the door open, I watch them enter while rolling my eyes.

“Which room do you think he took?” One of them says something strange. I wonder why exactly these two were looking for me. But then his heavy boot catches on the floorboard again.

“Oh crap!”

The upstairs door opens much more quickly than last time. Yin pokes her head out into the dark living room and sees the robbers.

“Who’s there?!” She barks with the replica katana in hand already.

Huh, that’s not what happened last time.

“Hold on, is that a sword?!” One of the robbers immediately homes in on the weapon and they turn to run.

“KYAA!” Yin screams as they stagger for the door. Though I know I could let them get away, I promised myself that this time I wouldn’t leave any loose ends. Raising my cleaver before Yin can say anything, I drive it into the chest of one of the thieves as he walks by!

“OOMPH!” He collapses instantly, his ribs crushed by the thick butcher’s knife. Yin watches in horror from her room, her replica katana forgotten by her side.

“W-Wait! Don’t kill them-!” She cries but it’s too late. Before she can say anything else, I yank my cleaver out of the first man’s chest and leap forwards to hack the other man in the back. He goes down a few steps out the door, scrabbling in the dirt as if he can hold onto life. But I drag him back inside.

“Please! Please don’t kill me!” He tries to beg with me. The blood from his back is staining the carpet red. Yin has her hand outstretched, but she’s too shocked to say anything more when I raise the knife on high and end this trouble before it can begin.

*Shing*

His head rolls off and I shut the door.

“These two broke into our house. I was watching.” I say calmly. Yin trembles outside her room, holding on the doorknob for support. She looks like she’s going to faint.

“Oh…I heard someone moving around in the living room. I thought it might be…might be you, you know? I didn’t think that they would…did you really need to kill them?” She shivers, the shock making it hard for her to speak. I shrug, going to the sink to wash my cleaver off. Then I go back and drag the bodies behind the couch so they’re not blocking the door. When I slam the deadbolt back down Yin flinches.

“Who knows what they were planning on doing. You’re a pretty girl, Yin.” I look at her and she puts her arms around her chest defensively. As if I’m the threat. “It’s best to take them out. Otherwise by the time we found out what they were doing here, it might have been too late.”

“I-I guess…” Yin clutches herself and still shivering, retreats into her room. “I’m g-gunna try to get some sleep, Hei. Have a…a good night!”

“Goodnight.” I look at her oddly and she shakily slams the door. Taking my time, I go back in the shower to clean the blood off. When I get back downstairs, I stare at Yin’s bedroom.

Huh, so she’s not going to invite me in this time. Well, I was probably a bit hasty to kill those two. Still, I don’t think I did anything wrong. Yes, I let them go last time, and yes it didn’t seem to hurt us. But things can change between my lives obviously and I still have no idea what exactly they wanted. It was safer to kill them.

I’m not going to lose sleep over my decision. I already wasted a lot of time staying up waiting for them. As someone who has had to defend my party from Hunter Slayers before, I’m no stranger to killing. Even before dying, the world had already taught me that sometimes it was necessary. Though perhaps this time I reached for my blade a little too easily…

“Whatever.”

#

When I get up in the morning, I halfway expect Yin to not answer my knock on her door. But it’s only a suspicion. Unfortunately, when I knock…

*Knock. Knock.*

No one answers.

“Yin? You okay?” I pause for a moment, waiting. However, it soon becomes apparent that something is wrong. “I’m coming in!”

*Thud!*

Rearing back, I smash into the door with a roundhouse kick. Instantly the strength of a Lvl. 1 Hunter punches the doorknob out and my foot goes through. Pulling it out and ignoring the splinters which catch on my jeans, I push my way inside Yin’s room!

“Crap.” I whisper as I see the empty bed and note. She’s left a piece of paper with some words scribbled in the middle of the undone bed. Looking at window, I see it’s open, and the room is chilly. Clearly, she’s been gone for some time. Rushing over to the note, I scan it quickly. This is bad!