Sei raised an eyebrow, curious about what the dog was doing now as he peered over at the revealed tracks. Ones that he couldn't identify, though it was no real surprise as he had little idea of animal tracks and could only tell footprints of fellow humans when he saw them. Still, he glanced at the dog's feet, before glancing down at the tracks. Even though he couldn't tell what they were from, he had to presume that the dog was not the one who made them perhaps. He had come from a different direction, and it seemed strange that if the dog was the source of the tracks he revealed, why didn't he tackle him from behind?

"These aren't yours, are they?" Sei whispered, rubbing his chin as he studied them and shivered at the cold burst of air. Immediately he stiffened, glancing up from the tracks at the sound of nature's howl and slowly frowned. It sounded inhuman for a moment, but he had to remind himself that if there was a Hollow about, he would at least sense it somewhat. "Then who made them?"

It was as Sei looked up into the night at the beck and call of the wind that the mound of dirt he had previously been staring at along with the skewed footprints would do more than just shift as it had before. The earth seemed to explode open in a shower of dirt as a shadow figure flew up and out of the grave and over the tombstone away from both Sei and the dog. The sound of a body hitting the ground was perceivable in the gap between gusts followed by a scurry of footsteps as the short figure fled, a short cape trailing behind it as darkness continue to obscure details from view. The dog barked and started to follow after the form.

Sei immediately grabbed his staff and pulled it into his hands, quickly narrowing his eyes. Immediately he began treating the situation as a chase; he may just have the actual, true culprit now. He quickly put his speed to the test, chasing after the pair. As much as he wanted to throw his staff and use it as a ranged projectile on the possible grave robber. But on the downside, once he hurled it, he would have no chance to retrieve it easily not to mention that he was not a master of weaponry.

Instead, he merely focused on running after the man, trying to keep his eyes focused on hunting down the person. Just what the hell was this person doing being a grave-robber on that note?

The petite figure was quickfooted, enough so that it stayed ahead of the dog that was rather... doggedly chasing after it. The body hurdled over a tombstone directly in its path, and therefore directly in Sei's path as well. It was a wide marker for a richer member of the deceased among the otherwise poor inhabitants. It was about four feet high, five feet wide, and three feet thick. If Sei could not easily jump over it, he'd have to circumnavigate the obstacle. The dog easily cleared it though. Its body was made for such things. It yipped and continued the chase.

Sei followed as best as he could, actually, better than he might as he was determined not to lose track of this man. Even as he saw him jump over a tombstone, the demon hunter had a simply idea in his mind as he gripped his staff. He stabbed the weapon into the ground and pushed off to use it as a vault to send him over it and forward. It wasn't simple or easy mind you, as Sei had to release the weapon and landed in a quick awkward roll.

He ignored the stones scratching his face, and as soon as his feet touched the ground he bolted off again. Sadly without his weapon, but his fists were going to do the job for him as he began concentrating, charging up a good burst to use. Heaven help this runner if he tried to continue, Sei was going to catch him and see how he liked a gut full of concussive force.

Sadly for the poor fleeing figure, it did not know what was on Sei's mind. The only thing on its mind appeared to be continuing its running away. The cloaked being was quick and lightfooted as it sped through the graveyard. The gates were nearing now and soon the hunted would be out in the street with more room to maneuver. Unlike Sei though, the dog was gaining on their prey. He was a big dog after all and its long legs ate up the distance. Still, he wasn't quite close enough to jump on it.

Sei didn't growl as some might expect with the fleeing figure ahead of him, no, he was completely focused on his task. Nothing would faze him and he was pumping his legs even harder to get closer and hopefully get some gain on the runner. If only the dog was close enough, he could hopefully jump the grave-robber and then he could deal with him. By deal, he meant punch the man's face in, assuming it was indeed a man.

Why a woman would be in a graveyard was beyond him at this time of night. And it would take one amazing lie to make him believe that she was there in mourning for a departed lover. That was about as likely as getting struck by a bolt of lightning from above in his mind as he pushed on, hoping to at least gain on the dog so he could get somewhere in this chase.

The dog did indeed gain upon the figure as it was running, but the canine did not jump on the target. Instead he ran at its side, barking and slobbering across the ground, leaving a very obvious trail of puddles and noises. It would be the noise that was the most helpful as the cloaked being turned a sharp corner around some of the taller tombstones before it had gotten to the exit just as dark clouds passed over the moon via a strong howling wind that left the air cold and the graveyard dark without the silver rays of light. Sei would have, at the very least, two choices for his own route. He could follow directly behind the figure and the yapping dog, or he could double back around the other side of the taller tombstones to attempt to head the figure off.

Sei frowned, keeping up thanks in part to the trail of drool that the dog was leaving behind. Thank heaven for that, though he also made a point not to run over them lest he slip and fall; and no doubt lose the runner. And of course, there was also the dog's noises to follow and his focus was in full swing, allowing him to make sure he was still on the trail. As he ran after the runner, he noticed him ducking down behind a tombstone while noting how the dog was running after him and he decided to help the beast out by quickly turning on his heel.

Instead of completely doubling back, he made sure not to turn too quickly to avoid twisting his ankle and quickly bolted around the tombstone in the opposite direction; counter-clockwise as the case was assumed to be. It was like a pincer movement, the runner would have to go around the side of the tombstone with the dog on his tracks while he went around from the other side, fist cocked back. It was clobbering time!

Oh so he hoped.

Fortunately for Sei, or so it would seem, his plan worked. The figure, face obscured by the shadow cast from the overlong hood of the cloak, was sprinting right into his trap with the dog following at its heels. There would be no time for the figure to stop, which allowed Sei every opportunity to put his plan, and fist, into motion, without any foreseeable problem as far as dodging or countering. Finally, some luck for the demon hunter.

Sei simply aimed at the figure's hood, twisting his torso so he was throwing his full weight and strength into the punch to punch him or her in the face. Only this punch wasn't just going to hurt like hell; it was also carrying the built up reiatsu of his burst. The concussive impact triggered blast would feel like a small grenade going off right in the face, only the power of the blast was concentrated. It was his primary form of attack at the moment, though not really lethal, it could still possibly knock someone out if it were a little stronger. However Sei would settling for stunning the figure, and with a successful strike (should it connect) he was going to then throw his entire body into the figure to pin them down.

No way in the name of Buddha was he going to let this grave-robber get away and he quickly charged a second burst in his other hand. If there was to be a struggle then he was going to just clean the figure's clock with a second burst filled punch.

The petite frame of the figure should have been indication toward a less than hearty endurance for hits, and something with the effect of a small grenade being slammed into one's face was never a good thing. Especially when that person happened to be a child. Perhaps child was not the best word for the young girl that collapsed to the ground from Sei's hit. As the hood of her cloak fluttered backward before she fell hard to the ground, her visage proved to be that of a girl around twelve years of age. At least before the blood erupted from her nose, covering her face and concealing minute details. The dog pawed at the fallen girl, whining loudly as he looked from the girl to Sei then back again. The only other movement of the scene before Sei was the irregular rise and fall of the cloak around the girl indicating shallow breathing, clearly through the mouth as blood still streamed from her nose.

Little could ever snap Sei out of battle focus, however, his own mind was of course able to do so. Especially when he realized that the grave-robber was a little girl! He actually let out a long line of prayers and apologies to Buddha for his sudden vicious attack. This was definitely not what he was hoping for and he immediately felt like the world's biggest fool for his actions. He frowned and quickly ripped off a long strong of his sleeve and put it over her nose, applying pressure to get the blood to clot and stop the bleeding.

"Lord Buddha if you can hear me, do not strike me down for my stupidity," Sei begged, quickly propping the girl up in his arms. He had expected to be fighting a thief and a grave-robber, but not a little girl! If he had known and focused properly, he would have held back on the burst. Then again, he was believing he was facing a thief and not a girl. "Hey boy... please tell me that this girl isn't your owner,"

The thought had crossed his mind; perhaps the dog hadn't been chasing her because she was the grave-robber but because her knew the girl. Oh gods above, if that was the case then the demon slayer was unknowingly becoming a rather good hound for Kurobara no Majo. The thought was not pleasant, even though it was going to happen at sometime, but of his own accord and not against his will by mere accident! Sei was not having a good night, no sir.

The girl remained unmoving aside from the shallow breathing as Sei administered to her. The dog on the other hand continued to paw at her unconscious form while whining at the demon hunter as if in response to his question. Around them, the wind had picked up once more and howled into the dark night, though the currents gradually pushed the clouds away from the moon allowing some silvery light to filter back down to the ground. The illumination might have been helpful to some, but upon the bloodied girl, it added a garish quality to the scene.

Sei frowned, quietly trying to think about what else he could do beside continuing to apply pressure and simply pray that the blood clotted fast enough. He flinched at the dog's whine, no doubt his answer, and immediately felt like a heel. It had been a simple mistake, and he could only hope that he had only just bloodied the girl's nose and knocked her out, and nothing more than that. Otherwise he may have actually lost his only witness that could talk to him in an understood language. And the sight of the damage he had done to the girl's face was actually unwelcome as he frowned.

"Brilliant Sei, just brilliant..." He muttered to himself.

SPOILER: Click to show

Not much I can do until you do something I can write a reaction to. The girl isn't going to be able to wake up any time soon given the damage, so if you're waiting on that, you should try something else.

SPOILER: Click to show

Ah, understood, I'll whip up something for that. o.ob

Seeing that he was getting no response, Sei carefully tucked his arms underneath the girl's leg and neck, moving his hand so he could still apply pressure to the nose. It would take a while for the blood to clot, and in the mean time he should at least get her somewhere safe. Though he could only imagine how the caretakers to the graveyard would react when he walked up with a bloody nose bearing girl.

He quickly pulled himself up to his feet, pausing to look around and then groan. "All right boy, I need you to lead me back to the graves, all right?" He asked the dog, glancing down at the animal. And he hoped it would listen and help him out, though he was still wondering just who the grave-robber was. At first he thought it was the dog, and now he believed it could be the girl but until she woke up there was no telling who the actual criminal was. Peachy. Absolutely peachy.

The girl was limp in Sei's arms as he lifted her, becoming nothing more than deadweight with a weak pulse, though the flow of blood seemed to be stemming its course now. The dog whined even more vigorously as Ne moved, but he seemed to understand what was wanted of him so after looking up at the girl, the canine turned about and started to pad back the way they had come, his nose touching the ground occasionally as he picked up various scents. Soon enough, the trio would be back at the grave they had started at, as was asked of the dog.

Now that Sei was getting somewhere, rather, he was back where he started he took a moment to quietly crouch down and look into the grave itself. She had been here after all, but why? There had to be something in the grave, yet, at the same time he wasn't sure just how much blood she had lost and it certainly would bode ill for him if he didn't get her some medical attention. He was no medic, the most he could do was purify with his own ability, and that was it. Otherwise, he would have to rely on what little he knew and as far as he could guess, it was best that she get some rest and let her body replace the blood that was lost.

"If only I knew you were here kid, I could've just asked you if you were the one upsetting these graves," He said, pausing for a moment to look over to the dog. "You wouldn't happen to know the caretakers of this graveyard too, would you?" At this point he needed to get back to that house and put the girl up, and tell the truth. And pray the couple didn't whallop him for breaking a poor girl's nose.

The dog merely cocked his head to the side as Sei questioned him. Minor tracking he could, answering questions, he could not. He was only a dog after all. He slobbered a little bit before barking though. The dog was pretty good at slobbering. So was the girl apparently, for she had shifted in Sei's arms when he squatted at the grave and the drool which had been accumulating in her mouth from her inability to breathe through her nose spilled out onto Sei's arm.

Sei sighed, getting no response except for some slobber, but it wasn't from the dog alone. The girl too, or rather, she was drooling on his arm and he immediately rolled her over so she no longer slobbering over him. He groaned, hoping that if karma existed that he had already paid his dues for what he did to the girl by misinterpretation of the situation. Sei groaned and immediately stood back up, pausing to glance over and try to figure out just where he needed to go now.

"Damn, this is going to be difficult," He muttered, sighing and pausing for a moment to look around. The demon-slayer started walking carefully away from the grave, trying to look for any sign of the small little house that the care-taker and his wife lived in. All the while, he was also adjusting the girl in his arms, pausing to slowly remove the makeshift bandage he put over her nose. "And you kid, should not slobber even if you are unconscious,"

The girl, of course, gave no response, but the dog whined at Sei almost disapprovingly, as if he was chiding the demon hunter for admonishing the girl. Still, the dog stayed by Sei's side, occasionally pawing or nosing at the ground. The same ground which Sei had been trotting over without minding whether or not he left tracks. Given that he wasn't trying to be careful, the ground was in fact, imprinted with marks matching his own steps. The moon still hung high overhead without clouds impeding its light's path, which would allow for such a thing to be seen, if one looked for it. Not that the graveyard was all that large. It wasn't the only one in the area. A faint glow could be seen through the wind-stripped bare branches of a cluster of trees to Sei's right if one squinted hard enough.

Sei sighed and frowned, grumbling to himself; he was only chiding the girl because he felt guilty over knocking her out. It was also because he had acted rashly, once again it seemed and this time someone had been hurt because of it. It was starting to get rather irritating to himself, to wind up messing up once more. As he walked, he paused for a moment to narrow his eyes; he had to take a moment to think and stopped cold in his own tracks. If he was going to shape up, he had to think and he took a moment to inhale and then exhale.

First, he began to look around slowly, carefully to see if he was missing anything. It was only because of that he was actually able to look over to his right and blinked. There was something there, something that wasn't moonlight or so he believed as he focused and squinted, turning and carefully walking in that direction. Perhaps, the girl wasn't alone besides having the canine companion with her. But what? Was it Hollow or Human?

It was a house.

Or so Sei would discover it he continued to walk in that direction. He would also find, provided he bothered to look down to keep his tracks in view, that it was the house that the graveyard's caretaker called home. Indeed, this was Sei's starting point. He had come full circle. Except, not in a circle. Candles burned brightly in the window, indicating that the couple was still awake and waiting for Sei's return.

ei blinked as he approached the glows, only to recognize the house as the exact one he had been searching for. Sadly, he would have to look around for his staff later as he approached the door, hopefully with the temporary canine companion in tow. It was going to be awkward, but he managed to at least use his foot to lightly "knock" on the door. Strange though, he didn't think it would be that easy to find the house. But certainly it wasn't too much to believe considering that it was the night and impossible to really make out much in the minimal lighting without the moon above to help him.

"Excuse me! It's me!" He added, hoping they would answer. And hopefully neither one was armed with anything heavy to smack him with, as he had no time to clean the girl's face.

It was because of such minimal lighting that Sei had been able to see another light source as much as he had to begin with, though the candles seemed to flicker as he knocked as if someone had walked past them. Then a wrinkled face appeared in the window near the door just through a slit in the curtains before the door flew open revealing the caretaker's wife. "My goodness! What happened?" She exclaimed, her eyes widening at the sight of Sei's young and bloody burden.

Sei smiled a little at the sight of the elderly woman, only to sigh and look down in shame. This was the part he was not looking forward to, admitting that he had clean clocked the girl with one Burst and all because he was under the assumption that she was a grave robber. Though, surely he couldn't be blamed too much; she had suddenly popped up out of the ground, and was running from the crime scene. Some might believe to give the girl a chance, but most people would go with the obvious which seemed pretty convincing at the moment.

"I was investigating the area, and she popped up out from beside one of the graves after this dog here led me to her, in a way," Sei explained, sounding completely ashamed of what he was about to add. It was one of his worst moments, he had to admit, and didn't like it one bit. "I caught her off, only thinking that she might be the thief until I stopped her with a strike to the jaw, if only I had been thinking and studying her... I stopped the bleeding in her nose for now..."

The poor demon slayer felt like a heel for hurting the girl, and he knew Buddha was not looking down at him pleasantly. If anything, it was probably pushing the deity NOT to strike him down right now. "I can explain more about it, if you would please let me in so I can set her down. I hope Buddha can forgive me for my brash actions," He added. It was strange, it was the first time he had actually begun to think about the religion his uncle had taught him along with his mother. Rather humbling to return to his roots, in a way...

"Oh dear," the elderly woman uttered in horror and took a step back as the caretaker appeared from around the corner. "That doesn't look like a strike to the jaw," he observed warily. "But that does look like fish stall owner's daughter." His wife gasped. "You're right! I didn't notice before because of the blood! Please hurry and set her down on the bed," she said, making shooing motions at Sei with her plump hands while the dog circled around her then sat at her feet.

So Sei had diverged a little from his intended confession, but he still got it out. The point was he felt like crud for hitting a girl, and from what the elderly man said, she was someone that was apparently native to the town. Though what on earth was she doing out there in the graveyard, hiding in the dirt? This was certainly strange as he quietly following the elderly woman's instructions. He didn't take a second to glance at the dog, but there was something bugging him now.

"What about the dog? Have either of you seen him around before?' He asked quietly, setting the girl down on the bed as gently as he possibly could. He had commit a grave act, and it was only through taking care of her that Sei would forgive himself.

As the caretaker's wife bustled about and tended to the girl, the man looked the dog over. "There's a few like him around town," he said. "Must've been a litter of 'em given out a couple years back." The dog cocked his head to the side, his ears perked up while Sei and the caretaker spoke though he was watching the woman take care of the girl. He whined as the latter stirred slightly then coughed painfully. Still her eyes remained shut. Or they did until after the woman had cleared the old blood once she had stemmed the flow then waved some foul smelling herbs beneath her nose. Then her eyes fluttered open and she grimaced only to make her gasp out loud in pain from the movement of muscles around her shattered nose.

"Oh dear! Try not to move," the woman crooned at the girl. "You took quite a nasty blow to the face, dear. How are you doing? Can I get you anything?" The girl clutched at her head for a moment, pain washing over her now that she was concious. "Water," she managed to croak out before she spotted the dog. "Kahen," she exclaimed in surprised. "What are you doing here?" Sei seemed to go unnoticed for now.