He looks up at her and he smiles.[break]
This is not the smile of a murderer or killer, although he is those things. Per the contract they have formed, they are bound by blood. Sitting on her floor, smiling with two children and laughing like an idiot, he looks like just another kid. Amber eyes raise to regard her. Their shade and hue are remarkably similar to the woman's own.[break]
If her presence bothers him, he doesn't let it show. As he sees it, he's just here as part of fulfilling the contract. Letting her know the job's done is important.[break]
"Yo! Heya. Job's done. Got bored of sitting around waitin', so I thought I'd come tell ya myself. These two are awesome." A hand goes to each of their heads, ruffling their hair. "Say, I'm hungry. Can I join ya for dinner? Call it a bonus."[break]
Hopefully the kids help his case. It's hard for someone to say no to their kids if the kids join in and say that's a good idea.

There's giggling from the other side of the house. In the dark corners, far away from the mother and the good food she cooks, the children are laughing. A guest has entered the home, having grown bored of waiting at an appointed spot. Instead, he stumbles into precisely the right place.[break]
It's foolish to underestimate a dog's nose. It leads him wherever he needs to go. If asked to apply human concepts of language to his navigation, he would appear an utter fool. He simply acts. Meaning and intelligent design are beyond him.[break]
The children were scared at first. Why wouldn't they be? He's a stranger in their home. It's only thanks to the strange creature he keeps with him, a Kartana named Kusanagi, that a bridge was formed between them. Well, maybe his ronin getup at something to do with it.[break]
The children have dubbed Hitoshi and his Kartana 'samufriends'. Hitoshi and Kusanagi stand up, pose with their hands on their hips, look forward. With a grin out of a movie, they speak in unison.[break]
"Once again, I have cut a worthless object."[break]
"Tcejbo sselhtrow a tuc evah I ,niaga ecno."[break]
The children love their Samufren. Kusanagi allows Huxley to wield him like a knife. Hitoshi shakes his head, having to be a little stern.[break]
"Careful now, don't hurt yourself!" He laughs. The children join him in laughing. Even Kusanagi laughs. That's how they're found, two children sitting on the floor by a ronin who leans against a wall, laughing so hard he has tears rolling down his cheeks.

"I don't know if we can get strong enough for this, Yumi." He confesses like this is the greatest sin of his life. "The things we ended up fighting, the things that trapped us in the sword n' shield for so long...they're evil. Not just greedy bastards or thugs. Evil. They're gonna kill everyone here." His grip tightens around her hands in apprehension. He wishes he knew how to hold her, reach her, keep her safe from these threats. He wishes he could shield her with his body and his soul, that she might never know such evil.[break]
"That big scrap I did back in the day, er, last month, with Grouhog, it made me realize somethin'. These people are too greedy for their own good. They all want a god to back 'em up. It'll offer someone the chance to be stronger. They'll say yes...and the whole region's gonna pay the price." He trembles in fear. He's not good at this, he knows it. Words are her weapon, not his. Neither sword nor word will slay this monster.[break]
"I don't think Rocket or the feds can kill that thing."

This is a moment he has dreamed about. Her face kept him sane over years that proved maddeningly stagnant. It brings him to tears, and there is shame in the tears. It is undignified of a retainer to cry before the one he serves. Once, he wouldn't have cared. Somewhere along the way he started standing on ceremony.[break]
"I've missed the hell out of you." It doesn't answer her question, and he knows it. Taking the towel with a gentle hand, his fingers tense with apprehension. A maddening fear grips him that he is still lost in the dream. A moment of contact with her, a passing thing as he takes the towel, gives him some small assurance.[break]
"...we got pulled into the dogs' weapons. Dunno how. Not my place to understand it. All I know is I spent twenty years in there." Burning severity fills his throat and resonates in his eyes as he dries the tears. Tears will serve no purpose, not when there are monsters that would kill her on the prowl.[break]
"Yumi...this place is dangerous."