A minute after the kind stranger had left to find her clothing, Asahina found herself sitting in the corner of the room once more. She wished she could say finding refuge in corners was only something she did now because of her current predicament, but that wasn't true. She had picked up the habit of sitting in corners from grade school. While other children found it easy to socialize and gain friends, she could never find the courage to face people. The fear of rejection and ridicule was a strong deterrent, not something she believed she could handle. It was the day she was assigned a seat in the corner of a class that she noticed the benefits. There were no eyes on her, and the enclosure of the walls was oddly comforting. Out of sight, out of mind, to anyone else it may seem desolate, but it eased her heart.

She looked down at the cloak the man had left her, the last time someone had been kind to her was so long ago, it was a nice feeling. She drew in a content breath, and her nose flared. The cloak carried a scent with it, one that was unfamiliar to her, yet nostalgic. It made her think of her master in the academy, one of the few people she could say she was close to. Her lips curved into a smile as if by reflex. "That's... right." She whispered to herself. It had been so long, that she had forgotten what it was like to have someone that cared for you. 

A few minutes later, just as he had promised, the young man returned with clothing for her. She let out a small gasp, not sure why she was surprised, perhaps she feared that he would not return. She got to her feet and took the clothes from him. "Grateful... Very grateful." she said, bowing her head to avoid eye contact with him. She did not want him to see her face so closely, she must look frighting in her current state. She tried to hurry and put on the clothes, however, her claws made it difficult to put anything on without tearing it. While she struggled with a rather large shirt for her size, the man spoke. A shiver went down her spine, she knew it was silly, but a man was talking to her while she was changing. She really was an idiot. Curbing her embarrassment she tried to give him an answer.

"Not. Quite." She said. It was true that she had been helping the Empire, but it was not her choice to do so. "Captured. Forced into machine. Power... Factory." She gritted her teeth, the very name of that place disturbed her. "Terrible pain. In machine for... Long time. Awake." She finally slipped on the shirt, and flipped her swirling hair out of it. "Sorry..." She said, not sure of why. Apologizing when she did not know what else to say was another habit of her. She finished dressing in silence, and returned his cloak to him. "Ryoko.... Only seen once." Asahina's clenched her fists. "She captured me." She did not remember much about the woman, the only thing that stood out in her mind was her piercing blue eyes that would have likely haunted her in her dreams had she been able to sleep.

She relaxed her hands, and looked in the man's direction. Her hair moved with a mind of it's own, covering her face. "I-... What is. Your name?"

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Shizuka frowned upon hearing what Okal had recently been up to. She was never good at gauging what a person was capable of at a glance. Looking at Okal, the last thing she expected to hear was a nonchalant admittance that he had caused the death of someone just today. She disliked this type of business, but hated even more so the fact that she knew it was a necessity. She wished there were other ways to get results, but she had seen what became of those with a meek heart, that naivety had been torn from her long ago.

She had to stifle a giggle in the palm of her hand at Lin's comment. She thought she was joking for a moment, but thinking about it, it made sense that she didn't know the terms he was laying out in front of her. Shizuka approached Lin, and whispered in her ear. "A rat is just someone that tells secrets that they aren't supposed to." She leaned away from her ear, and wriggled her nose. "You have got to tell me what you use to wash your hair, by the way."

Meanwhile, Ace contemplated his options. "Two on the inside, huh?" He could use the shifty merchants's help, but he wasn't sure about owing him for it. He didn't know this man, and by his own word he admitted to having no qualms with having them killed if they failed to fulfill their end of the bargain. 

"We'll do it, we always repay our debts!" Shizuka chimed in, causing Ace to seriously regret how long he took to speak around her. 

"Dammit Shizuka, I'm too tired for this." Ace said. "We don't even know what he'll ask for."

"It's fine, we need his help if we're going to find that girl. We let her out-"

"You, forced her out. I know you feel responsible, but we can't just make rash decisions." Ace said. Shizuka huffed and turned her gaze from him.

"You're a jerk when you're tired." 

"Uh huh." Ace turned back to Okal, and looked down at the man eye to eye. "We need to know what the empire knows, I'm sure you've heard of the Factories they build on each world they take over? We destroyed the one on our world, and I imagine they aren't too happy about that. They'll be on guard, but even still it'll help us to know where the Factory is on this world, as well as the location of that girl. We also need to know where their patrols will be if we want to get around. If you can help us with this, then I will personally see to it that you are repaid." Ace looked to Rika and nodded, trusting her to take care of things while he rested. Before he went to bed however, he walked over to Lin. 

Lin was a brave and strong girl, but he was afraid of what would come of her getting mixed into this. She likely never had to deal with cutthroats and espionage like this. She would see blood, people killed. She would learn more than just a few unfamiliar terms if she stayed with them, this line of work hardened people, she may one day find herself to be the one taking care of 'rats.' "Lin..." He grumbled, not sure of what to say. He was worried about her, he didn't want her innocence to be taken away from her like it had his and Shizuka's, but he also knew how proud she was. "Stay strong, and don't ever change, alright? Things are gonna get rough."

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"Ha, ha..." Ryoko rolled her eyes at Salforge's joke. "As if my work would be this Uncultured." She said, likely the only person on the planet that knew what that was supposed to mean. She watched as Salforge used his ability to spread a barrier around the room, it's many uses still surprised her, she wondered just what he couldn't do with his blocks. He gave her a summary of what possibly happened, and from what she could see she had no reason to doubt it. She was familiar with the kind of wounds a blade could inflict, and judging by the lack of any sign of a struggle, she agreed that it was the work of a skilled assassin. 

Salforge seemed to believe that they had already met the man's killer, she wasn't so sure. "A scimitar is a popular weapon of choice here, we'll need more than that to narrow this down." Ryoko stepped out of the shack and stretched her arms, she could really use hot bath right about now. "The man was a nobody, no one knew him, it's why I figured he would make a decent source. But it seems as though we're dealing with fairly competent individuals. We can't let them continue to undermine us like this, otherwise we will be looking at a repeat of what happened in Hollow Bastion." 

She walked back to the streets, leaving the body behind to the buzzards. "Perhaps we should lay a trap for them, I have a feeling our search of the city won't amount to much, as they have the lay of the land and an advantage in the city. We'll need to be careful about this, something too extravagant will give us away, perhaps..." Ryoko's voice trailed off as she heard panicked screaming a block away. A small crowd of people suddenly stormed from a corner of the street, frantically entering building to escape from something. For a moment, she thought the Princess of Heart had shown herself. However, what came around the corner instead was a black monstrosity. Ryoko watched with a deadpan expression as the grotesque creature crawled by on buckling legs. 

"You know what Sal, I'm going to go to an inn, and take the day off, fuck this."