"Positive. I will inform him of this. Gunslinger out," Tres finished his communication. They were standing outside of the church, and Tres had, after a couple of attempts, managed to contact Kate.

"Sister Kate said that the Professor left the ship approximately forty-five minutes ago," the cyborg said to Hugue, turning to look at the blond as he spoke. "He was required to remain onboard the Iron Maiden due to the storm earlier. However, he should be on his way back here."

Hugue frowned and stared at the empty streets further away. Having to stay on the airship explained where William had been for most of the afternoon, but he still thought the man should have returned already. Something was just not right.

"It's way too long," he told his companion coldly. "He should be back already."

"Positive," Tres replied. "Sister Kate informed me that she is also unable to establish communication to the Professor at the moment."

It wasn't raining at the moment, but the wind brought stray drops of water from the dark clouds far away. The air was chilly, and the blond swordsman shivered a little. He glanced at Tres, then started walking towards the town.

"We need to find him," he said, not actually paying attention if Tres was following him or not.

"Positive. Setting search mode objective to locating Professor Wordsworth," Tres stated aloud as he walked after Hugue. "Sword Dancer," he then added. "Suggesting that we split up. It would allow us to cover more area."

"You take the southern side," the blond swordsman replied after a few seconds of silence. He had to admit that the cyborg was right. "I'll take north."

"Positive," Tres answered simply, then turned and walked away from him. Hugue continued to his original direction, his gaze studying the empty streets carefully. People were staying inside more due to the vampire problem the town was having, and though the daylight offered some protection, no one was foolish enough to be out after dark; thus, the streets were void of all life.

He had no idea how far away from the town the Iron Maiden was. It was obvious that Kate couldn't bring the airship above the town just like that, and it was also quite likely William wouldn't walk too fast, but forty-five minutes was still too long. Hugue glared at the streets accusingly, the cold, miserable weather and the lack of street lights turning his mood from bad to worse.

The streets were dark save for the little light coming from the windows of the houses around. The sky looked menacing, like it was threatening to start raining again at any minute. Hugue tried to ignore it, but every second made the uneasy feelings he had worse.

He stopped to look around, then closed his eyes for a second. He knew he had to give up and stop lying to himself. He knew what he wasn't allowing himself to think, that the remaining vampire was somewhere around, had ran into William, and something had happened. He had enough reasons to hate vampires. Losing the Professor because of them was not an option.

His gaze scanned the streets while he tried to sort out his thoughts, having to admit there was more to it than just losing someone he knew. William was his friend, which was saying a lot as he didn't really consider anyone to be a friend, and his master and... He frowned deeply, unable to figure out where his thoughts were going. He told himself he could not afford to feel attached to anyone, but what was it that he was feeling, then?

"Professor?" He called out, raising his voice. He felt the need to distract himself from whatever he had been thinking before his thoughts wandered over to something he did not wish to think about.

From somewhere a couple of streets away, he heard quiet echo of Tres' voice also calling for William. After the sound faded, there was only silence. Neither of them were getting a reply, and after a moment, the swordsman walked onwards, keeping his eyes on the streets.

He stopped in the corner of the marketplace and looked over the area. Somebody on the other side of the square hurried to get away from the dark streets, but whoever that was obviously wasn't who Hugue was looking for. He turned to look at the church's direction, hoping that William would have taken some other road and had returned there already, but he knew that had that been the case, Tres would probably come to look for him and let him know.

The street was muddy, and he had to go around some puddles of water while circling around the marketplace. The air around him felt cold and damp, and by the time he made it to the end of the square, the slowly rain picked up again, filling the air with chilly drizzle. Hugue raised his hand to wipe his hair from his eyes, and that's when he noticed a lone object thrown around in the wind in the middle of the square.

It was just an abandoned black umbrella, and he didn't know why his gaze stayed on the object. Someone had lost their umbrella; he didn't know what there was to wonder about. He sighed silently and made his way into the middle of the area. The wind picked the thing up again and threw it away from him, and he had to chase it a bit before catching it.

He picked the item up and closed it with some difficulty, using only his right hand. He continued across the square and stopped under somebody's window where a ray of light escaped from between the curtains, then raised the umbrella and studied it.

The handle had three letters etched to it, 'WWW'.

"Master!" He called out, turning around. His eyes searched the square frantically, and he mumbled a few silent curses. He then stopped and looked at the street he was facing; the wind threw raindrops directly on his face, and he quickly calculated that to be the most likely direction where the umbrella had ended up there from, carried by the wind.

He called William's name, then made his way across the street and continued onwards, searching for any signs of the older man. He saw nothing and went on, his gaze scanning every corner and shadow on the way.

A moment later he came across another, smaller square, and started making his way across it, but he then froze and stopped to stare at the large building on the other side of the area. It was probably the town hall, as it had a flight of stairs and ornate pillars in front of the entrance, but Hugue wasn't interested in what the building was used for.

A lone dark-clad figure moved by the side of the pillars, and then disappeared into the shadows, as if to hide from him.

The swordsman suddenly remembered seeing something - or was it someone - looking at him and William through the window earlier during the day. He could only make one guess as to what or who it was. He could only guess what that person wanted, and he wasn't willing to take his chances.

He reached for his sword and quietly went after the shadow.