Ren strode quickly from the Niijima estate and onto the wide, gravel lanes of the aristocratic neighborhood which contained it. The street was clogged with waiting coaches and their anxious horses. The sudden exodus of the party was creating a bottleneck at the Niijima gate as every coachman suddenly needed to pick up their passengers- but a single man on foot was able to slip through easily enough. Ren's horse was awaiting him a bit further away.

The crowd and noise of the traffic jam annoyed him. He felt slightly angry at nothing and everything. He'd not envisioned how he would tell Makoto he was leaving Tock-Yo, but that just now was certainly not ideal. Ren continued to see Makoto's face in his mind's eye, full of that sudden disappointment and pain, and he continued to grow angry with himself because he was the cause of it. And he was angry at himself for being angry at himself for that!

*Well,* said Morgana, *that was really well done…*

Shut up.

*Why not stay?*

You know why.

The last thing Ren wanted to do was argue with Morgana about his own feelings. The damn symbiote thought he knew everything about him- just because he lived in Ren's consciousness! They weren't THAT linked. If they were, Morgana would know the reason to be mundane- and not related to Niijima Makoto. The symbiote seemed to think he had a romantic interest in the human woman. A dhampir and a vampire hunter! Ridiculous!

Ren reached his mechanical horse and pulled down the stirrups with unnecessary force. His inert mount simply endured the rough handling- it was incapable of reacting to Ren's frustrations.

*The imperial bounty law? That's a technicality-*

Not that! This!

Ren reached into his saddlebag, found a small sack buried deep within. He pulled it out, untied it, and thrust his hand inside, letting his fingers explore the contents. Five small pellets rattled around his roving fingers.

There? Feel that? Haven't you been paying attention?

*How would I know you are short on supplies?! I don't watch while you make breakfast. You don't like conversation while you're eating.*

I don't like conversations with you!

*What!? Don't be nasty to me! It's not my fault you overstayed your food supply!*

Get out!

*Fine. Be a fool on your own, then!*

Ren's jaw clenched, but he felt Morgana's presence vanish- he'd gone to wherever he went. Ren closed his eyes and took a deep breath, listening to the distant gaggle of upper-class society making their way home en masse. He breathed deeply again. The slight ache of anger in his forehead lessened slightly. Ren closed the bag of blood capsules, slowly and carefully retying its string before stuffing back into the deepest parts of his saddlebag.

Five. Morgana was right about one thing- he'd been a fool. He should have left earlier. But Kamoshida's venom had weakened him for a longer period than he anticipated, and Makoto's gala had made for a convenient cap on his recuperation period. Not that he'd needed the full week. He could have left three days ago. Instead…

Instead, he had stayed. Instead, he had watched a young human woman descend the stairs in a red dress. Insead, he'd had a dance with her.

And now he had five feedings and the nearest resupply was roughly 10 days away- and that an unreliable resupply to boot. He could make it. He could go on 1/3rd rations and make it. He would be hungry. Very hungry. But it was easy to stay away from humans out in the wilds. And it is much easier to be hungry when there is nothing to eat.

Ren mounted his horse. It sprung to life immediately and trotted obediently down the gravel lane towards the Yongen district and Cafe Leblanc. Should he ask Dr. Takemi for some of the blood she'd gathered? She reported that she'd been unable to replicate his blood capsules, but she would surely still have a supply of old, donated human blood in her clinic…

Ugh. Just the thought of it made Ren's stomach roil. Old blood was utterly disgusting and its nutritional value was highly suspect. It would keep him from starving, but by no means was it a sustainable solution. The capsules somehow captured the vitality that blood contained only immediately after leaving the human body. If blood was not processed correctly into a capsule within minutes, decay was sudden and unavoidable. The difference was imperceptible to all except the knowing palette of a vampire- or dhampir, in his case.

He needed to go resupply, and he needed to go immediately. He should have left four days ago. Or earlier- and risked a little bit of weakness on the way. But no, he stayed for a gala. God. Mother would laugh at the irony of it. It would even be better if he could leave tonight and get started on his journey, but the city gates were already closed and while he could easily get over the walls unseen... his horse and all his gear could not.

So, all he could do was return to the cafe and rest under the soil; sleep like a human through the night to conserve his energy and vitality. Then he would leave as the gates opened at dawn, and make all due haste for the resupply point far away south and along the coast. He didn't want to use one of the five capsules yet, but he was getting hungry. He was getting hungry while trapped in a city full of food. He needed to leave.

Ren felt reassured by his own reasoning. He knew what he had to do, and he knew when he had to do it. There was nothing else to be done. His mind drifted as his horse trotted its way through the night streets of Tock-Yo. People were sparse. Only drunks and a few exhausted laborers headed home from a late shift. Carriages and wagons passed here and there- pulled by tired and moody animals. The orangish gas street lamps illuminated the richer neighborhoods and commercial districts but vanished in the poorer warrens- there only the faint glow of candles and cookfires leaked from small shacks and other such haphazard dwellings.

Wealth and inequality were as evident in the darkness of night as it was in broad daylight. Ren wondered if his mother's people had taught the humans that: that callousness of wealth, that sense of… natural superiority; proven as fact by the possession of a pile of colored paper and shiny metal. And natural inferiority proved by lack of the same. Those cultural constructions are so firm as to be reality to those who want them to be so, and so overpowering to those who do not. It was the same here in Tock-Yo as it was back home. Ren felt an increased desire to leave the city, not that he needed another reason than the pressing matter of food supply.

And yet- he thought of Niijima Makoto descending the stairs with nervous stiffness. Her face locked in that artificial confidence Ren could now recognize instantly… And with each step, her thighs flashed out from the slit of her dress. She always seemed so unsteady in the role she created for herself, as if she was doing it for the very first time- and then not realizing she was doing it well despite that.

She was… genuine... interesting... She piqued Ren's attention, to say the least. She was something he'd never seen before. And her legs piqued another sort of interest- a base desire akin to that of his bloodthirst. He was wary of that- but…when they danced, he'd spun her several times and was able to see more of those legs… that was hard to forget, too.

Stop this. He needed to stop this thinking. And he needed to stop his horse! He'd been so engrossed in his wandering thoughts, he'd missed Cafe Leblanc a few buildings back.

*Ren. Wake up. Someone is pounding on the door upstairs.*

Ren rose from the restful place and opened his eyes. The cellar of Cafe Leblanc was dark, as always. There were no windows. But it was still night outside. Ren could feel it in his bones. He'd been resting for perhaps three hours. It was early pre-dawn. The time when almost all humans were asleep.

KnockKnockKnockKnockKnock!

At least one human wasn't. Sakura Sojiro, the owner, had a key- so he wouldn't be knocking. Could it- could it be Makoto trying to-? No, stop being a fool. She wouldn't come here in the middle of the night. It was too abnormal. Abnormal… the physician. Takemi. It was certainly her. If the door wasn't locked up there, she would probably have come right down into the cellar and shaken Ren awake herself.

KnockKnockKnockKnockKnock!

Ren sighed. He rose and quickly brushed the soil from his bare skin, then slipped into his armor. He grabbed his sword, too. It was certainly Takemi, but… he just felt better with his weapons.

Upon reaching the ground level of the cafe, Ren was able to confirm his suspicions by looking down the length of the cafe and seeing a blurry, dark-haired female with a lantern on the other side of the door window. He lowered his sword to his side, then walked down the bar and opened the door.

"I think I've figured it out," said Dr. Takemi as Ren opened the door. Her voice was calm, but a satisfied smirk was threatening to erupt into a wider smile. She was wearing a white coat over the black dress from the Niijima gala. Well, mostly white. It was covered in bloodstains- dark, blackish-red stains. Vampiric blood, Ren was sure; His nose was sure, anyway.

She'd learned something from the vamp-slave he'd killed? Ren opened his mouth to ask.

But Takemi barrelled on: "I know why my capsules aren't working."

The capsules! The food supply he'd been hoping for- On the eve of his departure?

"Come in, Mrs. Takemi."

Ren stood aside and allowed her to step into the dark cafe. He closed the door behind her and she set her lantern onto the bar. She then sat on one of the bar stools and turned to face him, crossing her bare legs.

"It's the blood. The vamp-slave's blood. It's different. Different from a normal human's. There are less parts in it."

"Less parts?"

"Yes. Human blood has two parts- two parts that I can see anyway, maybe there are more- but that's another issue. The vamp-slave? It only has one part! The blood does."

Ren attempted to process that statement into a conclusion.

"I'm not following, Ms. Takemi."

"I think your blood only has one part, too. But I need to confirm it. I need some of your blood." She took a small vial and a surgical knife from her coat pocket.

"I refuse."

"But-"

"The deal was: capsules first, then you can study me."

Takemi put the vial and knife back in her coat with a sigh of frustration. Her eyes narrowed and her fingers tapped out an annoyed rhythm on the bar. She uncrossed her legs and then crossed them the other way.

"I'm on the verge of a breakthrough! I'm sure of it. If only-... Oh! A capsule! Let me have another capsule."

"What happened to the first?"

"I used it up."

"I can't afford you to use up another."

"I didn't know what I was looking for, then. I just need-... wait. Yes. I only need a little. Just a little of the liquid it makes. To look at. Just this vial's worth of it."

Ren considered that. A vial siphoned away from a meal would not be a significant loss… in normal circumstances. But he was on the cusp of forcing himself on starvation rations out of necessity. These were not normal circumstances. But still… what if…?

"Say you are right," said Ren, "And in the liquid you see what you think you will see. What does that mean?"

"It will mean I know what's wrong with my prior attempts, and I will know what I need to make your capsules."

"How long before you could make them?"

Takemi hesitated a moment. "Three- maybe four days. I'm not sure. I'll have to figure out how to do it."

"How to do it?! You said you would know!"

"I'll know what I need to do, Mr. Amamiya- not necessarily how to do it. But, trust me. Of the what and the how- the how is much easier to figure out."

Ren felt that was a rather dubious statement. He could think of a thousand things that needed to be done, but no one knew how to do them. That seemed like a thousand contradictions to Dr. Takemi.

But could he afford to not take this chance? He could turn her down, venture out into the wilds, and get to the supply point- only to have the man not show. Then what would Ren be? A fool in the wild with no food- that's what. He'd already put himself in a terrible position, but at least here in Tock-Yo, he wouldn't starve. He could get by on old blood in Takemi's clinic if he absolutely must, and figure something else out with the time it gave. Figure what out? That was the question.

Gamble in the wilds? Ren considered that. Then he considered Takemi's half-lidded gaze.

Or gamble on Dr. Takemi? It was a gamble either way. He would get hungry here, but he could resist. He'd trained himself to resist. And with an emergency supply of old blood across the street, he had a better chance of survival in Tock-Yo.

Then his mind conjured the image of Niijima Makoto again.

At least he had allies here…

"Okay. You can have some of the liquid. But I need those capsules, Dr. Takemi. Badly."