It would have been nice if they had time to just enjoy their time in this quiet nameless village -- maybe the village elder would even grow to like them -- but there was still something important they needed to do to prepare for their imminent visitor. "Now," Kiori began, "we start sharpening your fangs. You still have those knives I gave you? Get your sword too." He wasn't naive enough to think that he could turn Rylee into a master swordsman over night, but there were a few simple things he could show her that would tip the scales in their favor. "The first thing you need to do is prepare yourself mentally. If the assassin is smart, he'll come when we're sleeping, which means that there is a fifty percent chance that [i]you[/i] will have to detect his presence, or more likely ward off his first attack, and if I am sleeping his first attack will be aimed at me." The coldness was returning to Kiori's voice. As much as he wanted to start over and live a normal life, he needed the assassin. He needed the calmness, the calculation, the capacity to kill. He didn't want to frighten Rylee with the prospect of crossing blades with an assassin, but these were simply the facts.

"There is one thing working to our advantage right now," he continued. "The window is facing the woods. If he attacks the hut, he will likely do it from the window, since that will give him a line of sight before he enters. When you are on watch, listen for silence. You won't be able to sense his approach, but the animals will. If ever the woods fall completely silent, wake me immediately. With that said, he may attack immediately if he sees you react to the silence, so be prepared for that worst case scenario. Are you alright so far? How are your nerves?" At the end of his plan, he tried to mellow out his tone a bit to show Rylee that Kio was still there. "If that's all clear, let's practice." He sat down and leaned against one of the walls, as he would if he were going to sleep. "The assassin just crashed through the window and has a strike aimed at my chest. The noise wakes me up, but I won't come to my senses in time. Show me what you'll do." This was the best way to do things. Instead of teaching Rylee entirely new techniques that she would have no hope of mastering, he wanted to see what her instincts told her to do. Building off of that would be feasible.