Love at First Sight - Rengoku Kyojuro

A Vote of Confidence

The slayer didn't return for a long while after that, allowing her to return somewhat to her previous schedule.

The only problem was that she'd grown so used to his presence, she missed him terribly.

As the season changed, all of the trees surrounding her home shed their leaves upon the ground, preparing themselves for the inevitable winter, and she prepared by finally chopping up the massive tree stumps that had been sitting in the wood pile out back.

Every time she swung the axe, she laughed softly, remembering how easily he'd uprooted it, and made her feel like a fool.

When she was done, she carried some of the wood into the house, and set it down next to the stone fireplace she'd managed to install so long ago.

As the day went on and she continued her preparations, she grew more tired, yawning widely and quite frequently. Winter was a time of rest and sleep for her, as she didn't receive visitors during that time, and it gave her a chance to recuperate from her exertion. It was like hibernation, in a way, except she woke up every now and then.

Finally, after finishing her thorough cleaning of her house, she closed all the doors of the house and put up her protective coverings, and stoked up the fire, sitting close while she intricately stitched a pattern onto her newly made kimono.

Letting out another yawn, after a while, she went to bed, lying down and closing her eyes peacefully...

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She'd awoken, oddly enough, to the sounds of birds chirping...

It seemed that she'd gone ahead and slept throughout the entire winter.

Cursing herself quietly, she rose to examine the state of her home, and was greeted by a thin layer of dust and some cobwebs.

“Ugh...”

The rest of the day was taken up by her spring cleaning, sweeping, dusting, laying fresh wax on the hardwood floors, and shooing away any unwanted critters or bugs that had taken refuge in her attic or the corners of her cabinets.

Finally, as the dusky tones of sunset began to tint her home, the woman deemed it safe enough to start removing her protective screens, as she didn't need them, and opened the sliding doors, nearly letting out a scream when she did.

She had not been prepared for the sight she saw.

There were a couple bodies, bloody ones, lying side-by-side near her overgrown flower bushes, looking almost as if they'd been gone at by a wild animal... And they seemed fresh.

Though it made her almost want to cry, she still had her demonic hunger to take into account...

Therefore, rather than let the poor men and their demise be in vain, she consumed what she could stomach, and buried their remains at the back of the house after dark, near the tree in her garden.

After washing up, she knelt at the grave with a heavy heart, and prayed that they be guided safely to eternal prosperity, if they were deserving.

Letting out a sigh, she went back inside, and got back to cleaning... Her bath wasn't going to clean, nor heat itself.

She had her hands full.

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While she was in the city, something in a window caught her eye, and she paused to look, having been curious. In the window, there was a beautiful dress with a strange design in the window.