Anxiety rode behind Makoto as she powered Johanna back to Azabu and the Niijima estate. She felt guilty, as if she'd done something wrong. Terrible, even. But what? Dance with a dhampir? A business partner? A man who saved her life, and she his? That hadn't seemed so wrong at the time, though she'd been peripherally aware of what others at the gala might think when she accepted Ren's invitation to dance. But the way Akechi said it, and the way the article sounded- it was like she was some sort of… deviant! She'd always thought herself as a proper, good person, but now-

Makoto had always thought that doing evil was a conscious and obvious choice a person made. But was that just a childish notion? Can someone be terrible and be completely oblivious to the fact? Believe instead that what they are doing is perfectly normal? Probably. Definitely. God, it seemed so obvious when one really thought about it. Perhaps a great deal of malice was not malice at all, but obliviousness. Carelessness.

A horse cart sped out of a side street.

"Shit!" said Makoto, caught daydreaming. She veered and narrowly missed the leading horse, it rearing in alarm as Johanna roared by, the cart driver cussing vehemently. Makoto sighed in relief and resolved to focus on the road.

I need to get a grip! Tearing myself up. Over what! A stupid opinion piece! A gossip rag! I did nothing wrong! I'm not a bad person just from dancing with a half-vampire. And Ren isn't a bad person because he was a half-vampire. It was all prejudice and social convention. What mattered was Shiho was safe. Ann and Ryuji were safe. And all the people Kamoshida would have preyed upon in the future were safe. There was no way to demonize that! And regardless! This is way too much attention to pay to some stupid article!

Makoto filled herself with a sense of confidence. She began to distract herself with things she needed to do before the meeting with Ren and the Sakamoto's this evening: a few chores, some equipment maintenance, an overview of the estate accounts (Yoshida was sure to quiz her about the month's finances within the next few days- God, some things never change)

So Makoto rode homeward with a clearer mind. But deep within, a nagging guilt festered in her gut.

The estate was both empty and busy at the same time, staff constantly in and out of every room, accomplishing some objective and moving on immediately. Yoshida was… somewhere, directing the organized chaos that was like recovering the house from a domestic sort of hangover. It suited Makoto to stay out of the way.

She took the Niijima financial documents; the monthly receipts, the invoices, the income reports; and she retreated to the solarium to perform the due diligence. Nothing was in order, so it appeared Yoshida had not begun for the month. It was the perfect chance to practice what he'd taught her and do it all herself. A work study! Makoto lost herself in the documents, enthralled by the raw information, content in an entirely useful activity.

An unmarked amount of time later, there was a knock on the solarium door.

Makoto looked up from the documents for the first time in hours. The sunlight had shifted angles and gone orange, the obvious signs of early evening and an impending sunset. More time had passed than she'd thought.

"Lady Niijima?" said a female voice from outside the door. "Sakamoto Ann and Sakamoto Ryuji are arrived. They're in the atrium now."

God! The meeting! How could she have forgotten! She had nothing prepared! She needed to- needed to? Well, what was there to prepare? There was only two things to do: tell the Sakamotos they were not going to hunt the next vampire with her and Ren. It was too dangerous for children! And then, when she was alone with Ren, they would review what they knew about this name, Kaneshiro, and figure out actions going forward.

And when that was done, it would be dark, and she and Ren, still alone, could… they could….

Makoto again felt the hot breath of Ren on the back of her neck. She felt again the strange sizzle of excitement she'd felt then, when she'd sensed his looming proximity in the dark cellar. Perhaps after the meeting, she could take Ren to the back veranda, under the moon, with the soft curtained light of the house windows behind them, and he would loom over her and-

"My lady?" said maid again.

"Oh!" Makoto blinked out of her daydream. "Um… Show them to the library, plese! I'll be there presently!"

"Yes, Lady Niijima."

Soft footsteps retreated down the hall as Makoto admonished herself. What in the world was she thinking about?! Was this-? Was this what the silly girls in the novels felt for the dashing protagonists? Surely something so vapid was not realistic. Real people didn't feel such things.

Makoto shoved the thoughts from her mind and stood from the work desk. The papers would keep. She would go downstairs and simply tell the Sakamotos that they needed to keep themselves safe and go home. A simple, blunt request was best. Surely.

She left the solarium and went down the hall, down the stairs, intending to continue into the first floor library, but as she descended, the front door opened. A frowning Dojima opened the door and stood aside for Ren to enter.

His body was tightly wrapped against the sunlight in his black cloak. His broad-brim black hat was pulled low over his brow, obscuring his face from Makoto as she descended the stairs.

Dojima nodded to Makoto, then closed the door behind himself as he went back outside, leaving Ren and Makoto alone in the atrium. Ren looked up at her, his grey eyes locked with Makoto as they connected with her gaze, like they were the eyes of a painting or a statue. Makoto froze, momentarily enthralled, mind emptying.

There was nothing else in the world but Ren's eyes. She couldn't look away. Didn't want to look away. Didn't have the concept of looking away.

Then Ren averted his eyes and clutched his right hand over them, as if he were recovering from seeing a too-bright flash of light. Makoto abruptly took a breath, finding herself breathless. She clutched the banister of the stairs to steady herself.

What...? What had just happened? What was she doing again? She was going down the stairs, apparently. So... she might as well finish that process. She took another step down, her mind beginning to clear.

Oh right, the meeting. The Sakamotos. Ren.

God, what was going on with her? Maybe she was just tired. Stressed. Well, she would have time to rest later. There was business to complete first.

As Makoto reached the floor of the atrium, Ren took a step away from her, still covering his eyes. Makoto stopped.

"Mr. Amam-... Ren. Are you okay?"

"Yes. Fine," said Ren. He lowered his hand and looked briefly at her. "It's just bright outside, that's all."

When their gazes met, Makoto didn't feel anything abnormal this time. But she noticed he looked… somewhat haggard. There were lines of tension in Ren's jaw, wrinkles of some sort under his eyes. He looked somewhat exhausted. It must be the sunlight. Traversing the city, on a day without cloud cover and before dusk must be quite trying for him.

"I'm sorry for that," said Makoto, "But this meeting… I agreed to it- by accident, last night. And I need your help."

She saw that she had Ren's attention. He waited quietly for her to continue.

"Ryuji and Ann. They're here. And- they're kids, Ren. I think they imagine going hunting with us. But they're too young. They can't be involved. Help me dissuade them."

Ren's face was its customary placid mask, but that tension Makoto had noticed was still there. Perhaps he was just annoyed by her inability to handle the Sakamotos herself? Well! She would! But by having herself and Ren as a united front, both telling the kids they couldn't hunt vampires with them; that was certainly the most effective strategy to deal with the problem. And he was under contract to her now, right? It was only appropriate that she use the resources she bought and paid for.

Ren looked away, as if in thought. He brought a hand up to his face and touched his own bangs- an instinctual habit, perhaps? What was he thinking about?

"Are you sure?" said Ren, his grey eyes coming back to Makoto's gaze. "They are changed, now. And both seem capable."

Changed. Makoto knew Ren was talking about their strange powers. During the final battle with Kamoshida, Ryuji had appeared from a bolt of electricity, and Ann had wreathed herself in fire, herself untouched by the flames. Makoto still didn't know what that was about. But in the relief of victory and in the rush of all the post-hunt events in the city, that final battle seemed more and more like a bad dream. But it had happened. The Sakamotos could do strange things, and Makoto had no idea how; but, there seemed little doubt it had something to do with vampires.

Makoto would ask Ren all about it later. None of that changed the fact that the Sakamoto's were too young. Ryuji was eighteen and Ann was a year or two younger, though she was certainly years more mature than her big brother, mentally.

"I'm sure," said Makoto. "They are too young. It would be irresponsible to take them into danger again."

Ren regarded her with a subtle look that Makoto was unable to fully parse. Amusement?

"You're barely older than they are, Makoto," said Ren.

Makoto blushed at the sound of her first name spoken in Ren's voice, and then she blushed harder as she realized he was right. She had two, perhaps three years on Ryuji. Amusement, then. Ren's expression had definitely been amusement. A twinge of irritation flashed through Makoto.

"And how old are you, then?" she challenged.

Makoto suddenly remembered that Ryuji had asked this same question, when he and Ann had found Ren and Makoto staking out Shujin Academy. But Ren hadn't answered the question, then. And come to think of it, that night was also the first time they'd heard the name Kaneshio...

"Twenty-four," said Ren, surprising Makoto out of her reflection.

He actually answered the question! And-! Wait! He wasn't nearly as old as she'd thought. What was it he just said? Oh! Right!

"You're barely older than I am, Ren," said Makoto, a sense of victory curled up the corner of her lips.

Ren's face returned to its placid state. "So are the Sakamoto's still too young, then?"

The slight victorious feeling soured in Makoto's mind. If Ren was barely older than her, then, while she was younger, she wasn't too young- so.. it followed that the Sakamotos only being slightly younger than her meant they, too, were not too young... They were either all too young, or none of them were.

Damn! He'd trapped her! He was clever! And upon this realization, Makoto felt a thrill of emotion sparkle through her mind and body. It was a mix of… happy, excitement, entertainment, and challenge… all mixed up in one brief rush. No man had ever done that before- besides Yoshida, anyway, and he didn't count.

Makoto instinctively took in a sharp breath of air.

Ren's eyes narrowed as they regarded her. "Something wrong?"

"Eh?" said Makoto, blinking, struggling to clear her head. "Yes."

"What is it?"

"Eh?.., Oh! No! I mean! Nothing is wrong! But yes! The Sakamoto's are still too young! So help me, okay?"

Trapped or not. Makoto was sure she was still right about them. They were too young!

Ren sighed. "...All right."

Satisfied with his reluctant agreement, Makoto led Ren down the main hall and opened the door to the library. The Sakamotos were already seated at the central table. Ann was hunched forward onto her elbows, idly playing with one of her pigtails; and Ryuji was lounged diagonally in his chair, his leg hooked awkwardly over the corner of the table, ankle wobbling. As Makoto entered, Ann sat bolt upright and shoved Ryuji's leg off the corner of the desk, his foot thudding to the hardwood floor.

"Hey! Wha-? Oh."

These two were young. Ren might be technically correct in that the Sakamoto siblings were close in age to her based on years, but that moment right there convinced Makoto there was a larger gap between herself and the twins, something more complicated and important than a number.

As she froze briefly in her internal revelation, Ren walked in behind her and stood near the side of the central table, opposite Ann. The twins looked at each other briefly, then both stared up at Ren. He nodded, then turned towards Makoto, his grey eyes focusing on her. The twins followed his example, so Makoto found herself pinned by the six eyes of her new... group? Team? What was this meeting? What was she doing?

God. Shouldn't I have planned this?

Well, she couldn't lose grip on the situation like she had with Mrs. Suzui but a few weeks ago. They were looking at her because they expected her to lead. To have the plan. The vision. So, it was imperative that she appear to have it all in her head, even if she was a bit hazy on the details herself: like a specific target to hunt, a process to hunt the target, and a clear means to dispatch the target.

Just the minor details...

Makoto pasted an expression on her face that she hoped advertised confident calm. She stepped towards the head of the table, grasping the back of the chair. She took a deep breath.

"Good evening," said Makoto.

The six eyes continued to look at her.

"Um- Thank you for coming..."

Ryuji suddenly raised his hand and started speaking: "Niijima, I wanna-"

Ann hissed at him: "Ms. Niijima!"

"-Ms. Nijima, we wanna hunt more vampires, but we got questions!"

Makoto felt grateful for Ryuji's outspoken nature. This would take the immediate pressure off herself to direct this meeting, and perhaps lead to new topics and ideas in the meantime. She was content to answer whatever questions Ryuji might present, and hopefully along the way, find a way to convince him and Ann to abandon the vampire hunting idea.

"Of course, Mr. Sakamoto. Go ahead."

"Well, uh- What's going on with us? I mean..."

Makoto's brief relief vanished. Well, that was an obvious unaddressed question, wasn't it? And she didn't have any answers.

Ryuji continued: "... I mean, I like... traveled through a tube. A small tube! And I just, knew where to go. And when I got there, I saw Kamoshida and- and- hit him with something! Something that came out of me! And my leg was broke, and now it's not! Everybody thinks I was faking because broke legs don't heal that fast... I guess!"

Ann, biting her lip anxiously while her brother ranted, picked up when he finished. "And I used fire! I could make it do what I want. But I can't now..."

"Right? Me either," said Ryuji, "I can't do the thing again. I've tried everything I can think of."

Two young faces stared eagerly at Makoto in expectation of an answer. They needed one but Makoto had nothing to give. When the Kamoshida hunt ended, the immediate crisis of getting back to the city morphed into an impromptu victory parade, and from there the resumption of regular estate life and gala planning had eaten up days. Meanwhile, Ann and Ryuji had been back at home, but normal teenagers in appearance only. Something had happened to them in that old imperial ruin, and Makoto had no idea what. But someone might...

Ren was pointedly looking at the floor, his wide-brim hat hiding most of his face except an obvious grimace. He disliked providing information about vampiric things, and whatever was going on with the Sakamotos, it was certainly vampire-related; his demeanor practically confirmed it.

"Mr. Amamiya?" said Makoto, transferring Ann and Ryuji's expectant gazes towards Ren. "You are best equipped to answer their questions, I believe."

Ren looked up, fixing Makoto with an irritated stare. But Makoto was used to that, and she already knew persistence was the best tool to break Ren's reticence. She looked back at him evenly.

He sighed. Looked up at the ceiling. Sighed again. Then he sat at the table opposite Ann and took off his hat, revealing his short, poofey hair. Ryuji and Ann leaned in expectantly towards Ren.

"The... abilities you are describing... are not your doing-". Ren frowned to himself, "Well, I mean, they are actually the capabilities of something else. Something that was added to you."

Makoto's mind immediately conjured up images from her childhood education, God and the Adversary, holy beings and demonic vampires in eternal battle. She was mostly convinced such things were but metaphors for the young or simple-minded; but, was Ren saying the old stories were right, and some sort of angel, or even a more direct act of God, directly granted the Sakamotos some holy magic to fight off Kamoshida?

But if that were true, then logically, the more... exotic claims of the church and its myths would potentially be true. Such as: Ren would really be some sort of distant descendent of the actual Devil. The same Devil which utilized women as the devious corruptors of forthright men. The Devil which spawned forth the vampires upon the earth to punish God's people.

Makoto recoiled from the idea. Her mind was zooming ahead when more information was needed. Ann and Ryuji seemed as confused and unsatisfied as Makoto felt. In usual fashion, Ren's answer was cryptic and simply fostered more questions. She needed to call him on it.

"That doesn't tell us much, Mr. Amamiya," said Makoto. Ren gave her a frustrated glance, but she wasn't interested in his frustration. She wanted his answers.

Makoto pressed on:, "If the abilities were added, what did the adding?"

"Yeah!" said Ryuji, "And can we do the things again?"

Ren's hand went to his bangs and fiddled with a clump of hair. Makoto was learning that was a habit of his when he was thinking. The room quietly waited for him.

"The thing that did the adding is what was added," said Ren, doing little to correct the confusion Makoto felt. But then he continued: "The thing with the abilities was added to you both. Joined with you both. And since it has the abilities, you two now have them."

"What is-?" started Makoto.

"Persona," said Ren "They are called Persona."

"Like... personality?" said Ann.

Ren nodded at her. "Yes. Exactly."

Ryuji suddenly sat bolt upright. "The ball! The talking ball thing is inside me?"

"I saw a talking ball, too!" said Ann.

What are they talking about? "Talking balls?" said Makoto.

Ren opened his mouth to speak, but Ryuji leaned back towards the table, slapping his hands on the wood surface. "Yeah, Ms. Niijima, a ball! Like- this big."

He held up his hands and acted like he was holding something invisible. Something a bit bigger than the lamp on the front of Johanna.

"It was yellow," said Ryuji "And glowing. And it talked! But I didn't hear it with my ears."

Ann was nodding emphatically. "The one I saw was red!"

"And what did the balls say?" said Ren.

Ann and Ryuji looked at each other.

"Uhh..."

"Umm..." said Ann, "It's hard to remember. I think I thought God was talking to me, at first. But the voice said- umm... something about a contract."

"Yeah, an agreement or something," said Ryuji.

Ren sat back in his chair. "Persona," he said. "There is no doubt."

"And these... personalities are inside them now?" said Makoto. "For how long? Can we get them out?"

"Get them out?" said Ryuji, sounding scandalized. "Why get them out? Can I use the Pursa-thing when I want?"

"I do not think they can be removed," said Ren, "But I did not think they could join with humans, either. But I am not an expert. I was only taught a little about them. Persona are relics. Very old and very rare. Made when the Empire covered the entire world. I don't think anyone knows how to make them anymore."

Someone taught him?

"Who taught you about them, Ren?" said Makoto, unable to stop herself.

Ren looked at her, his face going into his impassive mask. "What does that matter?"

"You-" said Ann, drawing attention to herself, "You say they are personalities, and I heard it talk. Is it a person? Is someone else living inside me now?"

"Like Morgana?" said Makoto, going along with the change of subject. Ren obviously wasn't going to reveal more about his past, and the Sakamotos were reasonably focused on the main issue at-hand.

"Morgana? Who's that?" said Ryuji.

"No," said Ren, ignoring Ryuji to keep his focus on Makoto. "Morganna is something else. He is not a Persona. And a Persona is not a person, Ms. Sakamoto. It is a thing that was made to... ah... perform certain tasks, such as to power machines or to... smelt ore, and the like. And to do so of their own accord, in a limited fashion. So they were created to have personalities to give them some... semblance of life. But they are not alive."

"So they are like ghosts?" asked Ryuji.

"No," said Ren. "They join with someone, but are not of them. Like a-... like a shadow. They are the basis of what humans call magic. They are what give the noble vampires their spells and tricks."

"How do they work?" said Ann.

"I don't know," said Ren, "I don't have one."

Makoto remembered that Ren had once done something to a darkness spell of Kamoshida's. When the noble vampire chose to reveal himself in the Shujin Academy stables, he'd somehow made the interior of the building pitch black. Ren had sucked that blackness into his left hand.

"Then what about the wind from your hand?" said Makoto.

"That was Morgana. He possesses a persona which grants him that ability."

"What was Morgana?" said Ryuji.

It was Makoto's turn to ignore him. "So the thing in your hand has a thing inside it?"

"Yes," said Ren.

"Inside your hand?" said Ryuji. "What are-?"

Ann leaned forward, interrupting her brother. "Then this Morgana person knows how to use Persona! Let's ask him how to do it!"

Makoto thought Morgana, the strange cat spirit in Ren's left hand, was certainly another of the many things which Ren wanted to keep secret; however, it was inevitable that Ryuji and Ann would find out about his existence. And Ann's idea was both practical and simple: why not see if the cat entity could help them use their Persona… things? If the Sakamoto's could utilize vampiric magic against the vampires themselves, they would be a huge boon on the hunt- perhaps even more so than Ren himself. Maybe the Sakamotos were not too young, after all.

Plus, this Morgana may be more ready with information than Ren, giving Makoto a chance to learn a great deal about things Ren was reluctant to talk about.

"It's a good idea, Mr. Amamiya," said Makoto.

Ren was silent for several moments, his face betraying a trace of annoyance. "Yes. However, Morgana and I are not currently on speaking terms."

Oh, please. What a lame excuse to hide something.

"But he lives inside you, Mr. Amamiya," said Makoto, "How can that be?"

Ryuji's head had been turning back and forth to each speaker. Now, he finally threw up his arms in frustration. "What is going on!?"

Ann appeared equally confused, but Ren didn't seem to be prepared to offer any additional information to the group. This reticence of Ren's was becoming tiresome, and he was the one who was advocating that Ryuji and Ann join them!

Well, if he won't say anything, then I will!

"Morgana is a symbiote," said Makoto, sure that was the word which Ren had used. "He is a being that lives inside Mr. Amamiya's body. When I saw him, he appeared as a cat's face in Mr. Amamiya's left hand."

Ann and Ryuji gave her a disbelieving stare, then slowly turned that stare to Ren, their eyes clearly drifting down to where his hands rested on the tabletop.

"For real?" said Ryuji.

A new voice joined the conversation, slightly muffled. "Yes, I'm real! And I'm perfectly happy to talk with anyone about Persona!"

Ren let out an audible sigh and raised his left hand. A small cat face was clearly evident in his palm, as if his hand had begun growing a cat, nose first, into the air, but stopped before the ears popped out.

Ryuji recoiled. "Gross!"

But Ann leaned in closer. "He's… cute!"

Makoto agreed more with Ryuji, but she kept her opinion to herself. She'd already met Morgana, and, at the time, it had been one of the weirder moments of her life. But for his part, Morgana seemed enthralled with Ann's obvious curiosity. The symbiote's feline eyes were wide and dilated, his cat mouth open slightly in what could only be interpreted as a smile.

"La- Lady Ann!" said Morgana.