Ryuji returned as the black of night was just beginning to grey into overcast daylight; a slow, almost imperceptible illumination of the world. Makoto watched him drive Amamiya's horse and the cart up the alleyway, a steady clacking on the cobblestones. She had both hands on cocked hips, subconsciously imitating Sae in body language that overtly said: 'where the hell have you been?'.

"Sorry, Ms. Niijima," Ryuji said as the cart passed her. "Mr. Amamiya sent me on an errand, too."

Right. The errand. "What errand?"

Ryuji pumped a thumb behind his right shoulder, indicating the answer was in the cart. "A tarp and a dead hog."

What? Makoto's hands slipped off her own hips as her mind tried to calculate that unexpected information. She looked into the back of the cart as it passed her position. Sure enough, there was a folded tarp in one corner and a dead pig in the center. The pig's throat was cut, but the blood was minimal. It looked like Ryuji went by the meat-market and purchased the animal just between the slaughter and the butchering. What was Amamiya planning with that?

The cart came to a stop before the still figure of Amamiya, who gave Ryuji an almost imperceptible nod of approval. He then walked around to the back of the cart, grabbed the hog corpse, and unceremoniously pulled it from the cart and let it drop to the cobbles with a fleshly slap. He then grabbed a leg and dragged the pig body over to the rough center of the skirmish zone, the area most thick with blood stains.

Understanding clicked through Makoto's mind. Amamiya was going to use the pig as a facade for the source of blood. That was clever! There were gears turning behind that brooding face of his. That was interesting. Her opinion of Amamiya, (a variable that seemed to change hourly since she met him), took a large leap upward. He could think. Like Yoshida. Like Father.

Makoto heard footsteps to her side, she glanced to see a frowning Ann moving up beside her. Ann was also watching Amamiya with interest, but seemingly just moving forward towards Makoto to make herself a part of the reforming group. Makoto turned back towards Amamiya, who was now in the cart and taking his knife to a part of the tarp. Ryuji was turned in his seat, watching him.

Amamiya held up a smallish scrap of folded tarp. "Ms. Niijima. The heads." He tossed the tarp cutting to land neatly on the edge of the cart. Then he began spreading out the rest of the material over the bottom of the cart. Makoto walked forward immediately, not resenting the obvious command. They were continuing their individual responsibilities; she was handling the heads; he was handling the bodies.

Makoto took the tarp and spread it on the cobblestones near the pile of vampire heads near the wall (the faces all turned towards the bricks). She picked them up one by one and placed them on the tarp, then brought the edges together and tied them, turning the tarp into a macabre picnic bundle. Meanwhile, Makoto could hear the unmistakable sounds of heavy objects being tossed into a wooden cart as Amamiya did his part with the corpses.

Makoto returned to Ann's side, head-bundle in hand, and watched Amamiya finish wrapping the larger corpse bundle in the cart. He appeared satisfied, stood, and turned to Ryuji.

"Turn the cart around, run the pig over with the cartwheel. Aim for the neck. Then, find someplace secluded to leave the cart and horse."

"Leave a teamed cart with cargo? What if someone steals it?"

"They won't."

Amamiya leaped off the cart. Ryuji shrugged and drove off down the alley, likely needing to get out the other side before he had room enough to turn around. Amamiya turned towards Makoto, dark grey eyes a perfect match to the currently dark grey sky of pre-dawn. Makoto felt a strange thrill as their eyes met, but then it vanished. What the hell was that? She tried to shake it off.

Amamiya walked up to her and held out his hand. Makoto stared at his black gloves, her mind still distracted by that strange feeling.

"Ms. Niijima."

"Ye- yes?"

"... the heads…"

"Oh!"

She handed Amamiya the sack. He took it, then turned and arced his head back to look up the building walls beside them.

"What are you going to do with them?"

"Leave them someplace secluded up there. The daylight will dispose of them."

"I see, so the sun will-" Makoto's breath caught in startlement as Amamiya suddenly crouched and then leaped fifteen feet into the air to catch himself on the building's brickwork, one-handed. Still holding the head bundle in one hand, he then gathered his booted feet under him, head arced towards the roof, and with a slight curl, leaped upward again to another handhold, ten feet higher up.

So that was how he got up that wall earlier in the night. Makoto assumed he'd climbed, but she would hesitate to call what Amamiya was doing now climbing. And had he simply jumped off the roof to land silently behind the vampires in ambush? She hadn't thought about it till now, but that required some amazing physical prowess.

"God," said Ann. "I kinda forgot he wasn't totally human."

Makoto silently agreed with Ann as Amamiya made a final leap and then vanished quickly over the rim of the rooftops. It was sometimes easy to forget… but then Amamiya would do something like that and take her breath away.

Makoto, Amamiya, and the Sakamotos retreated to the entrance of the school's alleyway when the first students began arriving (and gawking at the blood-stained cobblestones).

((Oh, wow! That pig was hit last night! Right across the throat!))

((Gross! Look at all the blood!))

They stood in a loose group against the side of a building, idly watching the morning traffic balloon into the early-shift rush hour. It was shaping up to be a gloomy sort of day, the dark grey of early morning was lightening into a grey-white sky of total overcast. Makoto and the Sakamotos stood a bit away from the wall, trying to catch as much warmth from the light as they could, while Amamiya remained flush against the wall, still and restive in the shade of the building.

Ann was dressed in her school uniform- as she'd been last night. How she kept the thing pristine was a mystery to Makoto. Ryuji was in casual clothing, but was leaning lightly on his guard's halberd.

"Don't you have duty?" asked Makoto.

"I took leave."

"You get leave?"

"My mom is sick."

"No, she isn't!" said Ann.

"Don't tell my sergeant that."

Ann frowned at Ryuji but didn't press the issue. Instead, she looked at Makoto. "What are we going to do next, Ms. Ni- um- Makoto?"

"The Suzui's should be arriving soon. They are going to try to secure us access and cooperation from the school's administration. Hopefully, that will make it easier for us to find our target inside. Assuming he, or it, is still in there." Makoto looked into Ann's blue eyes and worried about Amamiya's warning that the vampire was after Ann, too. "Maybe you should stay away today, Ann. If we do find the-"

"No. I'm coming," Ann said with defiance. "It's my fight, too."

Ann's face was serious, determined, and perhaps even a little offended by Makoto's suggestion. Obviously, it had been the wrong thing for her to say to Ann. Makoto felt her cheeks heat up just slightly. She nodded at Ann and returned her own gaze to the passing traffic.

They waited for a time in silence- an awkward-feeling silence to Makoto, anyway. The morning traffic intensified as the sky brightened to full grey day. Students were no longer trickling into school, but flooding their way down the alleyway. Hundreds of young women in the same uniform as Ann. Then, just as Makoto was fearing the Suzui's were going to renege on the agreement, their distinctive coach rounded a street corner in the distance and made its way towards them.

Makoto stepped out to make herself visible on the side of the road. The coach slowly made its way with the flow of traffic and turned towards the narrow alleyway of the school. It would be a rather tight fit, but students were used to coaches and flowed smoothly around the vehicle. A curtain whipped open from a window and the tense face of Mrs. Suzui appeared.

"Ms. Niijima! Why don't you ride into the school grounds with us."

Makoto nodded. That would send a wordless message that even a total fool couldn't miss: only allies rode in coaches together, and Mrs. Suzui seemed a powerful figure in the school community. Mr. Suzui opened the door from the inside and beckoned Makoto with a small wrist movement. Before joining them, Makoto turned to regard her companions. The Sakamotos were young, and despite their apparent mental maturity, their appearance would lessen the impact of the coach's arrival. Meanwhile, Amamiya looked formidable but dubious. He needed to be a passenger to gain respectability via proximity and association with the Suzuis.

"Ann, Ryuji. I think you two may as well walk into the school after us. I'm sorry to say, but it would be better if you let us handle this part of the investigation. You will still be close if anything happens."

The Sakamotos both looked a bit disappointed, but they didn't argue.

"Mr. Amamiya. Join us in the coach, please."

Makoto watched him lean himself off the wall, so she turned and stepped into the coach, confident he would follow. She took a seat next to Mrs. Suzui. The older woman offered her a small smile and a good morning, though it was obvious she was tense for the impending confrontation with the school principal. For his part, Mr. Suzui seemed relaxed- or as relaxed as the uptight man seemed able to get. That relaxation vanished as a dark, wide-brimmed hat stuffed its way into the coach door and Amamiya sat down next to Mr. Suzui with a soft creak of armor and a clacking sword sheath.

"And... what exactly is your role in this… sir," said Mr. Suzui.

Amamiya's grey eyes drifted past Makoto on their way to Mr. Suzui. Makoto tensed her forehead at him, but she couldn't be sure he got the message. He looked at Mr. Suzui for a tense moment.

"Muscle," Amamiya finally said, before turning back away from Mr. Suzui to stare at something over Makoto's head.

"What my partner lacks in social graces- Mr. Suzui," Makoto said quickly, stalling Mr. Suzui's response, "He more than makes up for in swordsmanship, I assure you."

"Leave the man alone, Mr. Suzui," said Mrs. Suzui, "He's going to help kill the thing that hurt our daughter."

Mr. Suzui didn't respond, but he assented and looked out the window of his side of the coach as it started creeping its way down the alleyway towards the school gate. Students still flowed to either side of them, only a few showing curiosity towards the coach's presence. Most parents of the students here were well-off, so coaches were likely common. Makoto could remember at least two every week when she was a student here. But with the faculty and administration entirely different, she barely recognized the place. It just looked like her old school, but the spirit seemed entirely transformed.

"So, we've come this far," said Mrs. Suzui, turning to Makoto. "What do you want from Principal Kobayakawa?"

That was a good question. She'd been so distracted last night that she'd failed to think of a plan for today. Makoto wanted to find the vampire in the school- presuming it was in there and still in there. But how best to investigate several hundreds of students and several dozens of staff members? Clear the school building by building? But how to clear even a single building? Amamiya said he couldn't smell the noble directly, and Makoto was unaware of any other identifying methods. And even if they had some way to identify, how would they keep people from moving all over the place for the likely hours-long process? No. It was entirely impractical. Meanwhile, the coach was creeping closer and closer to the school gate. Mrs. Suzui was staring at her, awaiting an answer. Makoto couldn't lose control of the situation to public-politics-Mrs. Suzui again. She needed a solution.

"Give me just a moment, Mrs. Suzui," said Makoto, "I need to see if the campus has changed significantly before I decide on the best course of action."

"I see."

A lie. But it bought time. Makoto felt her pulse quicken and her thoughts were now splaying away from actual planning and into worrying over the consequences of not succeeding in planning, even though she still had time to succeed if she could just focus. She danced her eyes around her, as if that would speed up her thought process. Her gaze stopped and settled on Amamiya's straight features. His eyes shifted down from the no-where he'd been looking to catch her gaze. His expression remained neutral, but Makoto looked into his grey eyes and thought he knew what they could do- but he wasn't offering the information. So he was giving her time to come up with something. She had a backup. She didn't need to worry so much about failing.

Okay. Back to square one. What was the problem? The vampire was likely hiding in a large pool of human beings. They could not check each person individually, but they likely would need to eventually meet the final suspects privately. So, the first step wasn't immediately identifying the culprit… but narrowing down the pool of likely suspects. Makoto had a few names: Ms. Chouno, Mr. Hiruta, Mr. Kamoshida. But the vampire could be someone else, too. So… how to blanket-check people for vampirism? What was a defining characteristic of vampires? Ah! Obviously! They couldn't be outside in sunlight, nor in any naturally illuminated room. Supposedly, they burst into flame. So…

The carriage pulled into the gate. Makoto made a show of looking out the windows at the campus, though she already had her answer:

"Mrs. Suzui, request the principal to call a full outdoor assembly: staff, faculty, students. Everyone. Then we will investigate anyone who doesn't show up."