As she turned from Ren to return to the manor, Makoto's world was a tunnel of anger, her eyes seeing only the path before her, her mind focused on the tight clench of her jaw. Show nothing, speak with no one, get to the bedroom. Get behind a closed door before the mask breaks.

The gaggle of people increased in volume as she neared the front door. For a brief moment, she considered going around to the back patio and entering through there, avoiding the small crowd.

No! She wasn't going to sneak into her own damn house!

The crowd quieted as she stepped into the lantern light of the porch. A few people said something or other, but Makoto didn't hear them. She maintained her pace, her eyes fixated on an invisible target in the air. The guests parted before her and she was through, though a low murmuring began amongst the crowd as she continued. What would they be saying? Wondering at her expression? Wondering at the end of the party? Who cares!

Yoshida was not in the atrium- a small mercy. She didn't want him seeing through her right now. Her legs carried her up the stairs, along the balcony, down her hallway. A calming rush of satisfaction ran through Makoto's mind as her hand clasped the familiar knob of her door. She opened it and stepped into the slightly cool darkness of her bedroom. Her bedroom where all inside was as it had always been since she was a child. Since Father vanished. Since she was alone and useless. Not good enough. Not strong enough to be useful.

She'd found strength in allies. She'd found Ren. She'd DONE something. Not on her own, but certainly she'd been the driving force: the weaver of the varied, separate lives of all the people involved in the Kamoshida Hunt. If not for her, the hunt would not have happened. And it won't happen again now that Ren was leaving!

Anger flooded back into the void left behind in her brief moment of calm. Makoto's body tingled with the need to strike out, to destroy something, to cause some damage to something, anything. The door knob was still in her hand. Good enough! Makoto's rage funneled down into her arm and she threw the door closed with all her strength.

WHAM!

That was loud! Surely everyone in the house heard it, and knew exactly what it was. A slamming door has such a unique sound. Makoto felt a twinge of embarrassment spring into the ebbing tide of her rage. The slammed door expended some of her angry energy. She took a deep breath.

Makoto realized she was standing in the dark in the middle of her room. A strange and pointless activity. She walked to her bed-stand and turned on the lamp, struggling slightly with the switch due to her gauntlets. Out of the corner of her eye, Makoto saw a light across the room switch on, too. Her head snapped around- a flash of fear going through her.

It was just the reflection of her and the single lamp in the mirror of her makeup cabinet. She stared at herself, the wide-eyed shock she'd given herself fading before her own eyes. It was just her. Just her. Just a silly rich girl playing at being her father. Makoto held up her hands, gazing at the spring-blade gauntlets. Just silly toys for the silly girl.

And if not for Ren- the Kamoshida hunt would have failed. As would all of Makoto's future ambitions without his capabilities that… God Damnit! Were so much more potent than hers! He could leap from buildings. Absorb magic. Fight with swords. Survive fatal injury. All of which Makoto had discovered was essential when dealing with noble vampires.

She yanked a gauntlet off. What was she going to do with these? Stab a vampire in the heart? Like she'd get the chance! She yanked the other gauntlet off. A vampire could throw her across the room just so! Makoto flung her gauntlets into the far wall.

TH-THUMP!

And the stupid boots! Makoto's hands tore at the laces. Toe blades?! What was the point?! The laces did not cooperate with her. She cursed them, snarled quietly, and used the heels of the opposite boot to pull off the other until they were both loose and then Makoto kicked her legs to send the boots flying, too.

THUMP!... THUMP!

Her pants next. Makoto's fingers attacked the laces at her waist. What was the good of any of it?! None of it would allow her to best anything but a vamp-slave. She was strong. For a young woman her size. She was fast. For a young woman her size. She was well-trained. For a young woman of her culture. But none of that mattered! She could be the best in the city and she would still be a gnat to someone like Ren! Someone with all the capabilities that vampires had naturally. So what was the fucking point!?

Makoto tore down her pants and tried to kick them off. Something heavy and metallic struck her kneecap. The sharp agony of a direct bone-hit shot up through Makoto's nervous system. She gasped, cursed, clutched her knee and collapsed onto her bed in sudden, but quickly fading agony. When she could think again, she reached down for the offending object. Her gun. Father's hand cannon in its holster, still attached to her belt. Makoto sighed and unhooked the holster from her clothing and finished taking off her pants.

She then held the holstered gun in her bare lap. Her father's gun. He'd killed vampires with it. Many vampires. How'd he do it? How did Sae do it, come to think of it? It seemed impossible for her- but there must be something to it. Something she didn't know. Could she learn it? Could she survive long enough?

If she was honest with herself… if she thought of that final fight with Kamoshida... if she thought of the sound those spines made when they sank into Ren's body. His body protecting hers.

If she was honest with herself… No.

No, she didn't think she could survive long enough to learn much of anything. Makoto's vision blurred as she teared up. What was she going to do now? What could she do now? Damnit. And now she was crying because she couldn't be what she wanted to be- because Ren was leaving.

How pathetic. How useless.

And with those thoughts circulating in an endlessly, torturous cycle, Niijima Makoto slowly fell asleep.

"

Mrs. Niijima?"

Tap. Tap.

Makoto's eyes opened to the dim world under her bed sheets. Morning light was leaking greyly through the fabric. The room must be pretty bright to have so much of it reach her. Mid-morning at the earliest. Perhaps later.

Tap. Tap.

"Mrs. Niijima. Your breakfast…"

Makoto remembered all of her thoughts from the night before. A weight settled on her mind. Not sadness, exactly; But a sense of- of- pointlessness. She curled into a tighter ball and closed her eyes. After long moments of silence, the maid outside her door walked away, her feet quietly padding down the hallway. Makoto closed her eyes and drifted in her dark cozy place.

Knock. Knock.

"Makoto. What's wrong?"

Makoto's eyes opened again. It was Yoshida this time, and he would not be deterred by mere silence. Her time of solitude was at an end. But maybe she could avoid talking by satisfying Yoshida's maternal concern.

"I'm up," said Makoto from under her covers. "I'm getting up. I was just very tired this morning."

A pause.

"It's noon," said Yoshida through the door. "You've never slept until noon before. Something is wrong."

Damn. He wasn't going to go away. "You can't fix it," said Makoto. Then she hissed at herself under her breath. If Yoshida had not been sure of a problem before, he certainly was now.

"Neither will you, locked in there," said Yoshida. "Open the door. Maybe I can help."

"You can't." But Makoto sighed and flung off her covers. She'd fallen asleep in her padded corset, so the cool morning air raised goosebumps over her bare thighs and arms. She went to the wardrobe for her heavy robe, tightened it over her body, then opened the door.

Yoshida stood in the hallway, sharp as always in his butler's uniform. His eyebrows remained in a concerned arch as his eyes quickly searched Makoto's face for clues. Makoto knew his expression, her heart knew it: a worried parent. Even if he couldn't help, she should at least let him try. It would make him feel better..

"Mr. Amamiya is leaving the city today," Makoto said, trying to keep her voice neutral- but that just made her speech stiff and obviously artificial. "We're no longer partners."

"I see," said Yoshida. "There are vampires in the city and a vampire hunter is leaving? Why is he leaving? Did he say?"

"He said there are no contracts and he won't work for free."

Yoshida's concerned expression turned into one of surprise. "No contracts? Truely?"

Makoto briefly wondered if Ren lied about that. But she doubted it. He didn't lie, as far as she could tell. He was evasive and vague when he wanted to hide information, but he didn't lie.

"I don't think he would lie about such an easily verifiable thing. And why -that- lie if it's a lie?"

Yoshida didn't answer. He pursed his lips. "So… why not hire him directly?"

Makoto's mind went blank as Yoshida's words washed over her. Hire him? Me? I have the money. Why not, indeed! It was so simple. Could it really be that simple? It.. it could be! Makoto snapped her head around to look at the sunlight streaming through her bedroom windows. What had Yoshida said? Noon!? Ren was planning to leave much earlier than that! Damn! Why didn't she think of this last night! What a fool she was!

Still, new hope was kindled in her.

Maybe he'd been delayed. Maybe he'd overslept- or over-rested, or whatever it was damphir's did. She could try! And if he really was gone, perhaps Sojiro would know which gate he headed for, and the gate guards would know which direction he went. Johanna could outpace Ren's mechanical horse at a full gallop, and Ren probably wouldn't be traveling at a full gallop.

"I need to get dressed, Yoshida! And then I'm going out!"

She closed the door on him, but not before she saw his concern switch to a self-satisfied smirk.

"As you say, my lady."