Makoto did not return to the city immediately. She turned her motorcycle towards the more traveled trade roads, to places where the dangers of vamp slaves were commonly culled to keep travelers relatively safe. She found the long straightaways she knew well and opened Johanna up. The roar of the engine in the night was a balm. She almost couldn't hear the memory of her sister's voice over Johanna's roar. Almost.

Right now, you're useless to me.

Useless. Did she not slay the vile creatures? Did not her revolver always find its mark? Was not the contract completed? Yes, she hesitated! Yes, because it looked like an innocent! Was it not right to make sure? What the fuck was Sae's problem? Useless. Useless. You're useless to me. Makoto gritted her teeth, came around a corner sharply and pushed Johanna to the max. The dirt road streaked by, her headlamp illuminating terrain that was practically behind her by the time her eyes registered the sight of it in the first place.

A dark shape caught her attention- a darkly dressed man on a horse heading in the direction of Tock-Yo City. She vaguely noticed the horse skitter away from her motorcycle as she passed, but then she was gone and the man and horse far behind. Some fool traveling the roads at night alone. It wasn't her problem. If he wanted to get eaten, fuck him. It was his choice. Makoto didn't care right now. When she cared, it always came to bite her in the ass. You're useless to me. Fuck. Fuck you, Sae. He was my father, too!

Early dawn finally brought Makoto back to the city gates of Tock-Yo. Johanna was steaming, low on fuel. It would be expensive to fill her tank again, but Makoto didn't regret it. The long ride alone refreshed her more than sleep would have. She didn't even want to go back to the house. Without her father, it was too dark, big, and empty. And the idea of encountering Sae only made it seem less desirable a destination than ever.

The gate checkpoint was not busy. Only fools and vampire hunters traveled at night, so most of the travelers and merchants would start queuing up for inspection and entry by mid-morning. The nearest layover outpost between here and Yoko-Ham to the south was several hours by cart. But Makoto was surprised to not be first up. A darkly dressed man was standing before the city guards, his horse standing idly nearby.

It was the man she passed last night. He must have continued his leisurely pace and arrived just now, or perhaps he was forced to wait for the city guards to open the gates for the rising sun. Makoto drove Johanna up to a respectful distance and cut the engine. Her arrival drew eyes from the guards, but no great excitement. Just another rider coming in early. But it also drew the attention of the darkly dressed man.

He turned his head, his strange wide hat shadowing his face. Makoto saw pale white skin, angular features, a sharp nose, sharp ears, and behind some spectacles, grey half-dead eyes. It was a vampiric face. Alarm shot through Makoto and her hand went instinctively to the butt of her revolver at her hip. The grey eyes regarded her cooly, watching to see what she would do. Makoto felt tension build in the air between them, as if both of them were springs that were coiling tightly, still and silent now, but ready to explode in released energy. But she hesitated, her mind regaining control of her instinct to attack.

It was daylight. And a wide-brimmed hat and a coat would not protect a vampire from the morning sun. And the guards. The guards seemed oblivious to her, to the tension, and they were standing around the dark man with wary but relaxed postures. None had their polearms pointed at him. They didn't seem to feel any threat from this creature. In fact, the guard captain was standing right in front of the dark man, reading an official-looking paper.

Then it clicked. This was a dhampir, a half-vampire. They could move during the day, and they did not necessarily feed on humans, though she'd heard plenty of stories about ones that went bad and did so anyway. Some dhampirs were even vampire hunters, themselves. They utilized the strength of their heritage to hunt down the same creatures the Niijima family did. Was this man one of that variety? An ally against the dark, though dark himself? Makoto became curious despite herself. A half-blood. What did he know of being a vampire? What did he know of the world? She'd never been far from Tock-Yo, the place of her birth.

Sae would not be curious about this man. She would want him dead. Half-vampire was vampire, and half was more than zero. She was not a woman of greys. Black and white with her, always. Right and Wrong. And right conveniently was always whatever Sae thought it should be. Makoto was tiring of such limited philosophy. Or after last night, Makoto was just plain tiring of Sae and everything she thought and represented. Makoto used her feet to push her motorcycle a bit closer, straining to hear the conversation.

"This paper appears in order," said the guard captain, handing back the document to the dark man.

"For real, Sarge?" exclaimed one of the guards. A young, blond-haired man. A private by the look of his uniform.

"Can it, Sakamoto. I know a writ of citizenship when I see one."

Makoto was surprised. A writ of citizenship meant the dhampir was legally the same as any human citizen in Tock-Yo. He was protected by the law and held the same rights as anyone. In short, someone like Sae could not just gun him down in the street. Well- assuming the lawman in question didn't just look the other way, which wasn't outside the realm of possibility. People didn't like dhampirs because of their… bitey reputation.

"But why would one of these things be allowed to live in here with us?"

"It's above your pay grade, private. And why are you talking? We've had words about that big, loud mouth of yours. You're cleaning the latrines today."

"What! That sucks!" Sakamoto exclaimed.

"And tomorrow, too."

The blond-haired private went quiet and sulked.

The guard captain returned his attention to the dark man. "You may enter. Do you know the laws of our city?"

"I do."

"Where are you staying?"

"I believe it is known as the Cafe Leblanc."

"Good. If there's trouble… you know where I'll look first."

"I understand."

The guard captain looked seriously at the dark man for a long moment, then waved him through.

Makoto pushed her motorcycle up to the guard captain and showed her citizenship card. "A dhampir with a writ of citizenship?"

He looked at her card and relaxed. "I know what you mean." He shrugged. "But I was told to expect his arrival. Apparently, he's been specifically requested."

"Who is he?"

"I'm told he's called Vampire Hunter J. It seems a stupid name, but I guess cities in the south know it well. Apparently, he's killed a great many nobles."

Makoto had never heard the name either. But anyone who could kill even one noble was formidable. Noble vampires were the real deal. As intelligent as a human, or more so, and capable of various things both magical and mundane. Makoto had yet to even see one. Sae didn't take Makoto on those hunts, even before she'd called her useless.

"Thanks for the info," she said as the captain waved her through.

A brown-haired guard approached her. "Hey, beautiful. I can't help but notice those amazing eyes of yours. Can I take you for a drink when I get off duty?"

Makoto glanced at the brawny guard. He looked about her age, but his private's uniform was somewhat unkempt. His brown eyes were glazed with the look of base intellect.

"No." Makoto pushed her motorcycle through the gate.

"Hey, what-"

"Seito!"

"What, Sarge!"

"What have I told you about hitting on travelers while on duty! Sakamoto, you won't be alone shoveling shit this afternoon. Seito will help you."

"Come on, Sarge!"

"Do you know who that was, you dipshit? That was one of the Niijima sisters. Your dumb ass is so fucking lucky it was the younger one, or you'd be bleeding right now…"

Makoto ignored the exchange. Men were weird around her. It was just a fact of life that she hadn't had the time or interest to figure out. She was twenty, but whatever men and women did with each other was not on her agenda. There were more important things to do. Like tail this curious dhampir before she lost track of him in the morning bustle of Tock-Yo City.

She walked onto the street which ran along the city wall. She looked left and right but didn't see the dark man or his horse. Where? Oh, right in front of me. The dark man was walking his horse straight ahead, down the main thoroughfare into the center of the city. He'd blended in surprisingly well with all the beasts of burden being readied for the day of labor. The wide avenue inside the gate doubled as a sort of staging area. A wagonry was here, as were a few stables. Even a mechanics shop, which is why she habitually entered via this gate herself. The owner here knew what Johanna needed the best of anyone in the city.

He hurriedly pushed her motorcycle into the dim garage of the mechanic shop.

"Iwai!"

"Yeah!" came a voice from a nearby oil pit.

A surly-looking man with a squarish face popped his head out from under the motorcycle he was working on. 'Oh, Ms. Niijima. Good morning."

"Can you take care of Johanna today? I'm in a hurry."

"Yeah, yeah, sure. I love working on that bike. I'll get to her next once I finish this pain in the ass."

"Thanks."

Makoto hurried back out on the street, assured Johanna would be ready when Makoto needed her again. Munehisa Iwai was the best mechanic in the city as far as she was concerned. Some people didn't like him because he was an innovator. Not everything he tried worked. But Makoto was fascinated by the gadgets the man thought up and had several of them installed on Johanna. The ones that did work were amazing.

She spotted the dark man turning a corner far ahead of her. She jogged to catch up, then settled into a leisurely pace at a respectable distance from the dark man. Tailing him into the depths of the city. They were on the way to the Yongenjaya distract now, she noted. It was a normal enough residential neighborhood. Merchants and craftspeople of middling income.

The street was relatively busy. Townfolk going about their morning business. A young boy was hawking newspapers. "Extra! Extra! Another vanished schoolgirl from Shujin! Is there a vampire amongst us? Is the city hiding the truth? Are your daughters safe? Read all about it!"

Another one! How many was that now? Three? Could the gossip really be true? A noble vampire hiding amongst them in the city itself? Was that why this dhampir was called? This so-called Vampire Hunter J? It seemed to give credence to the rumors.

As if hearing her thoughts, the dark man turned and looked behind him. Makoto immediately turned to the newsboy and purchased a paper. She buried her face behind the pages for a few moments, then hesitantly peeked over the top. The dark man had turned away and was walking again. Makoto followed. She held the newspaper before her, holding it open just in case she needed to appear to be reading at a moment's notice.

After a few more blocks, the dark man entered a small business. The sign read Cafe Leblanc, and it appeared to be a coffee shop. Coffee was an expensive luxury. She was surprised that this neighborhood's income could support a business of this type. Then Makoto looked closer at the sign. "And Saloon" was written in smaller lettering. Ah, that was it. A booze house that was trying to make itself seem respectable for local clientele. Makoto wondered if such a thin disguise was effective.

She walked close to the windowed door, but pushed against the wall, trying to listen without being seen.

"Hang on, please!" a distant voice was shouting. "I'm just finishing something up."

Silence.

The voice spoke again, nearer this time. It was gruff and mature, like a man in the latter half of his life. "Sorry, I had to finish that before I-"

A glass shattered.

"What- what can I do for you?"

Makoto strained her ear to hear- it was a soft, surprisingly warm voice that she heard say: "I've come to collect on this Sakura family debt."

Silence.

"Seriously? I'm barely related to these people."

"But you are related. Are you saying you will break this family oath?"

"... Hold on. No. Let me hear what you want, first."

Makoto couldn't help herself. She peeked into the window. The dark man was standing across the bar from the shopkeeper, a lean man of his mid-50s with stylishly trimmed facial hair. There was a paper between the two of them on the counter. The shopkeeper's eyes flicked to Makoto. Shit! Makoto dodged back out of sight, but already far too late.

"Just- just give me a moment. Don't scare my customers. Come on in! I'm open!"

Makoto felt her face blush. Should she just leave? No. Niijimas didn't run! She learned that from her father. She took a deep breath and opened the cafe door, trying to appear cool and collected. The dark man's grey eyes watched her steadily behind his spectacles. The shopkeeper was looking at her, too. His eyes were traveling up and down her body, but not in a lecherous way. He was identifying her, his exam stopping on her gun, her armor, her bullet-studded shoulder-pads.

"Back from a hunt? What can I get you?"

"What?"

The shopkeeper pursed his lips at her. "What do you want to drink?"

"Oh! Uh… yes. Sake. Hot. And- and pickled radish."

"Coming right up." He turned towards his kitchen, stopped, pointed at the dark man. "Hang on a sec, will ya? Let me serve my customer."

The dark man remained silent, which the shopkeeper took for assent, and he left for the kitchen to prepare what Makoto ordered. The dark man's grey eyes shifted to Makoto, and she quickly looked away. She looked around the cafe- a plain and clean place- it looked dated. But in a charming way. Unable to resist, she let her eyes flick back to the dark man. He was still staring at her with those odd grey eyes. It was a challenge.

"What are you looking at?" said Makoto, hackles rising slightly.

"You." said the dark man, evenly.

"I know that! Why are you staring at me?"

"Because you are following me."

Makoto blushed. She'd been made the whole time! Her mind whirled, looking for a solution. "No! I always come here after I get back in the morning."

The dark man was silent for a moment. "You're bad at that."

"What? I'm bad at what?"

"Lying."

Makoto felt her cheeks go hot despite herself. Damn! She put on an offended voice. "What!"

The shopkeeper returned with a sake carafe and a small cup balanced atop it. And his other hand held a bowl of pickled daikon. He set them down in front of Makoto at the bar.

"Here you are, Ms.-? What's your name? I've never seen you here before."

Makoto sighed. So much for her ruse. What was the point now? "Niijima Makoto. Thank you."

"What! One of the Niijima sisters in my place! It's an honor! I'm Sakura Sojiro, the proprietor."

"You are too kind, really," Makoto said lamely. It was her father's name that was famous, not her. She poured herself a small cup of hot sake and tossed it back. She looked away from the shopkeeper, trying to hide her embarrassment and anger. This was not going how she planned. Wait. She didn't plan this at all. That's why it was going this way. Damn. She was not herself this morning.

Sojiro seemed to take the hint and turned back to the dark man. "Okay, so- fine. A family debt is a family debt. I haven't seen those people in twenty years, but whatever. What do you want?"

"A place to stay for a while."

"You mean like a room?"

"Yes."

"No. No way. I can't have one of you in my house."

The dark man silently stared at Sojiro.

"Look, you- you just can't. Ok? But I don't have anywhere else you can stay. There is this room, but this is my business and I need to make money!"

"The cellar. You just came out of a cellar."

"Yeah, what about it?... Oh. There? You want to stay there? It's just coffee beans, sake barrels, and spiders down there. It has a dirt floor."

"That's fine. I'll stay there. For as long as I want and need. And I'll count the debt satisfied."

"That sounds pretty open-ended..."

"This debt is for a life, and I'm asking to sleep in your cellar. Your family is getting off cheap. Is it a deal?"

Sojiro sighed. "Yes, yes. Fine. Just don't be a pain in the ass, please? And don't damage my goods!"

They shook hands. Stared at one another. The dark man was impassive. Sojiro looked defeated.

"Well, if I'm going to see you every day…" rumbled Sojiro, "What's your name?"

"People call me 'J'."

"Seriously? That's a letter, not a name."

"It's short for Joker, I believe."

"That's a ridiculous name. I'm not going to call you that. What's your real name?"

The dark man looked at Makoto for a moment. Since her ruse failed, she was just staring at him openly. He looked back at Sojiro. "Amamiya Ren."

"Okay, Amamiya it is… Do you need any furniture, Mr. Amamiya?"

"No."

Makoto and Sojiro watched the dhampir called Amamiya Ren turn and walk back outside to where his horse was standing. He took off his saddle and then walked back into the cafe with it over his shoulder. His grey eyes flicked between the two them.

"I'll be going to my room, then."

He walked past them both to the far end of the room and descended some stairs there, vanishing from sight.

"Yeah, make yourself at home, I guess," Sojiro mumbled to himself, rubbing his temples. "Oh. Hey! Your horse! Your horse need food and water or what?"

"It's mechanical," came the soft voice back.

"Mechanical horse?" said Sojiro, turning to look at the horse outside. "They still make those? I thought everyone wanted motorcycles for riding these days. Huh."

Makoto turned and looked back out of the window, too. The horse was standing very still, and it's hide was unusually smooth. The eyes were also frozen open. Plain white orbs with no iris. She hadn't noticed- it moved just like a real horse. Such automatons were certainly out of fashion versus motorcycles like Johanna. Mechanical horses contained more moving parts which made them somewhat less reliable. Parts were hard to get now. Repairs were expensive. They were slower. But in return, Makoto guessed they were much more stable and could handle almost any terrain, while cycles were more or less limited to roads and open spaces.

She looked back at Sojiro. The shopkeeper was frowning, eyes closed, and rubbing the back of his head as if trapped in a deep line of thought or worry.

Makoto poured herself another cup of her sake and watched him. A family debt? It was an old tradition. Ancient. From back when the vampiric empire still held sway over the world, if Makoto remembered her history. Humans who performed certain beneficial acts for vampires were sometimes rewarded with a debt, which could be cashed in by any member of the human's bloodline for a favor later on.

The bloodline transference was meant to compensate for humanity's frailty when compared with the ruling vampires. Humans lived shorter lives naturally- and also were food items, raised like creatures who were both serf and livestock. So should a human who was owed a debt meet an early end, it could still be repaid by the vampire to some member of that human's family. Over the centuries, human families started doing the same thing with each other.

Makoto thought it was an odd development. A debt of gratitude designed to compensate for a human's untimely… consumption. A pat on the head for a weak and inferior species. It was both sinister and honorable at the same time. But supposedly, not all vampire nobles were cruel, which the existence of the family debt tradition seemed to indicate… but then again, even the relatively benevolent ones had to eat somehow. Could a human cash in a debt by saying, 'Don't eat me?"

And what did dhampirs eat, anyway? Ones that went bad ate human blood, but their victims didn't transform like a real vampire bite victim. But… what did not-bad dhampirs eat? Makoto couldn't remember.

She crunched into a pickled radish, savoring the sweet-savory flavor and its cloying acidity. It paired with this sake well. Sojiro knew his business.

"So what's this debt?" she asked him, breaking him from his internal mind journey.

"Eh?" Sojiro looked up like he'd forgotten he even had a customer in the shop. "Oh, sorry. Well, it's kind of private and-..."

Makoto arched an eyebrow at him, fixing him with a hard look. As much as she hated the undeserved esteem that the Niijima name brought her, she did like to use the intimidation factor. Sojiro buckled under the pressure of her gaze.

"Ah, well, you heard it all anyway." He up the paper that was still resting on the counter near him and placed it in front of Makoto. It was covered in formal cursive and the bottom featured a large wax seal with the kanji symbol of 'Sakura'. It was a formal letter of familial debt.

'In recognition of great service to the family Sakura, the bearer of this note, Amamiya Ren, is thereby owed a debt to be repaid by any Sakura now living, or any Sakura yet to be.'

Makoto admired the calligraphy of it. It was like a work of art. "People still have documents like these made? It's like something from a history book."

"You're young. I've seen a few in my life, but I didn't expect to see this one. It was created by my cousin. They migrated to Osk-aka twenty years ago. I don't travel much, so I haven't seen them. We exchange letters sometimes, but we were never close anyway."

"What did the dhamp-" Makoto's eyes shifted to the top of the stairs where Amamiya Ren vanished. "What did Mr. Amamiya do for your cousin in Osk-aka?'

Sojiro sighed, picked up the document and put it in a drawer. "Five years ago, his daughter was taken by a noble. That dhampir downstairs got her back before she was… eaten. The tale was probably the most interesting letter I've ever received from my cousin. He's pretty boring, to be honest."

Makoto ate another pickle and tossed back another cup of sake, it was cooling rapidly. A rescued child. A human family offering the debt tradition to a dhampir. It was like a role swap of history. A vampire saving a human. Well, half-vampire. But did it make the rescue half-heroic? Not in Makoto's estimation, but perhaps in Sae's. Makoto frowned to herself and emptied the last of the carafe into the small cup. But fuck Sae, right? She tipped the final cup back.

You're useless to me.

Makoto slammed the cup down harder than she intended.

Sojiro was watching her. "Want another?"

"Yes."