"You what?!"

Those were the first words out of Tomoe's mouth after Alistair had finished his explanation. It left the scarlet samurai vexed, wondering how it was possible. The vampire across from the square wooden table from him sighed, as if this was something he had told multiple people in the past and expected as a first reaction. The two locked eyes for a second before Tomoe, still confused, began to chuckle. That chuckle turned into audible laughter, and then finally to the sort of joyous roar one would find from patrons at a late night bar crawl.

"Yes, yes, it's as I told you. I've never had so much as a drop of human blood before. It's just... not in me to do. I've relied on livestock and other alternative sources for as long as I can remember being like this.", Alistair spoke bashfully, eyes looking anywhere except at his conversation partner.

After a few beats more, Tomoe's laughter died down and he sat up in his chair. Raising a contemplative hand to his chin, he peered into the vampire's eyes; they were a window to the soul, after all, and such things as lies and slander could be revealed if one looked deep enough. In response, Alistair leaned back in his own chair, away from the Joyan's gaze.

"What are you even doing? Get away from me. Look, I know it's weird, but you need to understand that it's true. Following that, I don't even want to be a vampire."

Tomoe relaxed in his seat once more, looking out the side window at the glowing moon above. An establishment in Dahlia was kind enough to spare them a room for the night, and that was something he was thankful for. He heard the vampire's words, but didn't know how to process them. Thinking back, there was no hesitation to feed on humans when he was a vampire, was there? It was just a way of life to him. Compared to that, Alistair was probably a much more humane person even now. Tomoe gave a simple nod to acknowledge that he was listening to the vampire's words, still gazing out at the celestial body in the sky.

"I know a way to cure vampirism. I don't want to be this way anymore, but I can't really get the ingredients as I am now, so I'd ask you to-"

"Just tell me what I need to do. We already worked out the pay, yeah? So it's all fine. I'm gonna go take care of shit, and you'll stay here. Sounds good to me.", Tomoe interrupted with a sly grin, facing Alistair once again with a confident gleam across his features.

Alistair nodded with a look of understanding, and handed the swordsman a list. On it were the ingredients necessary for a cure for his curse, and Tomoe's eyebrows shot up at the things listed.

"These are pretty demanding, eh? That's all good, I'll get it done. Where could I find these on short notice though?"

After receiving directions to the necessary locations, Tomoe crumpled the list into his pocket and headed out into the night. Such a potion was more demanding than he'd have thought. Heck, all he had to do was fall off a cliff to cure his own vampirism in the past.

---

WC: 390/850 (15% reduced)

The first on the list was a werewolf. That was easy enough, as Tomoe had encountered many of those in his stay in Dahlia. With one tribe cleared out as a result of his and Aegis' previous extermination quest however, he was grateful for Alistair's directions towards another. He made his way deep into the forests of Dahlia without a hint of fear, having traversed these paths in search of werewolves before. His scent was likely known to the werewolves in the forest, and they would know him for having brought down another tribe. Sensing him, it would only be a matter of time before they sent forth hunters to take him out.

And send they did. After more time spent wandering the woods, Tomoe heard the sounds of howling and then hasty movement towards him. The encounter was barely one worth mentioning - once they had arrived, they were skewered on sight by Tomoe's magic. It would serve both to complete that portion of the job, and to warn other tribes that the threat of hunters was not yet over for them. A few minutes after the fight had ended, Tomoe had clipped a few claws from the deceased werewolves.

Next was a vampire's tooth. Tomoe had been pointed toward a cave, and didn't very well know what to expect once he arrived at the lair of the supposed vampire. The disappointment on the Joyan's face when he found a malnourished, ghoul-like man hunched over a corpse was not possible to hide. Where were all the vampire overlords hiding? Was there anyone that could possibly measure up to the title of 'vampire' tonight? The ghoulish man was certainly a vampire, though one that had long ago succumbed to the maddening craving for blood over his own sentience. He was a lost cause, and to end him now would be the right thing to do. That's why, when the vampire rushed towards Tomoe eager for his next meal, he was met with a hailstorm of sharpened iron to shred him to pieces. His body went limp, showered in his own blood, and Tomoe calmly walked over and picked a few teeth off the floor as they were now separated from the shade's mouth entirely.

As the Joyan made his way to the last stop on his map for the night, he thought for a moment. Damn, I really do solve most of my problems with violence, huh? What's that say about me? Is that... alright to do?

Pondering for a few more moments as he neared his last stop, he already knew his answer.

In this case, it's fine. It's fiiiiine.

Tomoe thought this to himself, because as he approached the town of Dahlia once again from his trek through the woods, he knew that he'd show no mercy to the last one on his list. A daemon was a human who had been bestowed the power of demons. That meant they were as close to a demon as one could get without fully becoming one. As thoughts of the Astera incursions flooded through his mind, Tomoe steeled his resolve as he walked up to the front porch of his final target and knocked on the door.

Greeting him was a man with dark circles around his eyes and a lifeless expression. He was pale and covered in dark robes. How had he gotten away with living among the people of Dahlia for so long without suspicion?

"Yo!", Tomoe spoke cheerfully, and before the daemon could process who the man before him was, he was met with a flying sword straight into his mouth.

As the daemon reeled in pain and fell backwards into his house, rolling around on the floor and splattering blood everywhere, he knew he was thrust into a fight for his life. Or so he thought. When he tried to move further into the house to find something - presumably a weapon of some kind - Tomoe decided to stop him in his tracks. Another sword came down and impaled the daemon's right foot, nailing him to the floor. Stuck, bleeding and filled with fear and tears, the daemon gazed up at the devil before him.

"Sorry, bud. This is just business.", the crimson cutthroat spoke plainly, a smirk on his face contradicted by smoldering hatred in his eyes.

The rest of the encounter was not the sort of thing to be described, but in short, enough blood was definitely drawn to satisfy the requirements for the potion. Tomoe left the daemon's house, closing the door behind him because he wasn't rude, and walked off into the night. The encounter with the daemon in particular had let off some real stress he had been building up, and it was nice to just vent for once. He realized that what he did was not the sort of thing a hero should do, but when it came to the demonic, he didn't care. Tomoe held his head high as he returned to Alistair with all the ingredients in abundance.

---

WC: 825/825 (15% reduced)

- Exit -